May Fortune Smile on Us
by Tinithor
Summary: With a quirk that's as reliable as winning in a game of dice, most would say he was crazy for trying to become a hero. Heroes are people who everyone's supposed to be able to depend on. He knew it would be a gamble from the start, but he wouldn't let that stop him from getting into UA. He's got Lady Luck on his side after all. Right? (OC/?)
1. Little Lady Luck

**A/N: So Here's a bit of a more detailed summary. This story was inspired by the idea I had for an OC with a gambling themed quirk. I haven't really seen it done before so hopefully I can do it justice. Once we get past the first arc of his origin story all the other canon characters we already know and love will play a huge role in this story, often taking center stage. I won't be following canon to the letter. We've already seen how the event's play out in canon and dozens of rehashes on this site. I'll be visiting the most exciting bits like the Sports festival and such, but I'll change things up to keep it interesting. Rating is M mostly due to language, just in case.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own My Hero Academia obviously. This is just a fan work for fun and not profit.**

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 **Chapter 1: Little Lady Luck**

"Hate to break it to you Johnny, but it looks like I win again" Chance's father chuckled as he flipped over his cards to reveal a pair of Jacks.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me Katsuro! You had an overpair there? I just can't catch a break tonight can I?" Johnny groaned before pushing his chips across the table and slumping over in exaggerated anguish. His brown hair covered most of his face as he laid with his head down on the table.

"Bad call uncle Johnny!" Chance Kojima giggled at the man's silly behavior. It was Wednesday evening, his favorite night of the week, because that was the night his father's friends and fellow poker pros would often come over to play cards. He loved to watch and learn what his father did at his "work" all day, and thought the house felt much more lively when they were all there as well.

This week, however, it was only Chance's father and his best friend Johnny playing some heads up together. One might think that would mean it would be more quiet and relaxed, but Johnny was always the most animated of the bunch. He was easily able to cause as much of a commotion as a whole group, all by himself, to young Chance's great amusement. The boy had climbed up onto a chair at the table with his father and Johnny. He was standing up and leaning over the table trying to get the best view of the game.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up kiddo. Is that any way to treat your favorite uncle?" Johnny reached over and ruffled Chance's already messy purple hair.

"He's only laughing because even he could see what a terrible play that one was. Isn't that right Chance?" His father said affectionately.

"Yeah!" The youngster cheered.

"Are you trying to say that a four year old knows how to play better than me Katsuro? That's a bit harsh don't you think?" Johnny sighed and pulled out a cigarette that he lit by flicking his thumbnail against the inside of his index finger. His quirk, "Matchstick", allowed his thumb to ignite with a small flame. It wasn't particularly useful except as a minor convenience, but Chance still watched with great interest. He hadn't figured out what his quirk was yet, but he loved to see other people use their unique powers.

"He's not just any four year old. That's my son! He's got a knack for games like this, why do you think he always likes to hang around and watch us play when we have our home games? He's a regular chip off the old block. Takes after his old man." Katsuro boasted, glowing with pride, before he turned his attention back to Johnny. "Oh come on Johnny, put that thing away. You know how much Alice hates it when you smoke in the house." He groaned.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me just have one smoke. You've been taking my money all night. It's the least you could do. Besides I'll be done before she even notices" Johnny brushed him off.

"Before she even notices what?" As if on queue Chance's mother walked into the room, noticed Johnny smoking, and huffed in disgust. "Johnny!" She ran a hand back through her long blonde hair in exasperation, then pulled out a rolled up newspaper seemingly out of nowhere. She used it to swat Johnny playfully. "How many times do I have to tell you not to smoke those disgusting things in my house. I swear, you're more trouble than a toddler. Speaking of which. Chance don't stand on the chair! You could fall."

"Hey!" Johnny yelped in surprise. "Jeeze Alice you just walked in and already you're on a warpath." He grumbled as he put out his cigarette and threw it away.

"Sorry Mama. I couldn't see good." Chance apologized sheepishly and sat down.

"Well someone has to keep all you boys in line." Alice smirked. "Otherwise who knows what sorts of trouble you'd get into. Besides, you ought to be more grateful to the person who comes bearing snacks!" With a flourish of her hand a large plate full of cheesy garlic breadsticks appeared, as if by magic. She placed the platter down on the table then walked over to her son.

"As for you mister, how about you sit on mama's lap so that you can see better. How's that sound?" Chance's mother asked with a warm smile before she picked him up and sat down on the seat, setting him down in her lap.

Meanwhile Johnny had already scarfed down a whole breadstick and was reaching for a second. "I take everything back. Alice you're an angel and these breadsticks are magical! Almost as magical as that crazy pocket dimension quirk of yours." He exclaimed.

Alice pulled a napkin out of the aforementioned pocket dimension, or her "Magic Compartment" as she had named her quirk, and handed it to Johnny. "I thought you'd change your tune quickly enough when I brought out the food. Just don't make a mess." She admonished genially. "And if you think my quirk is so magical, why is it that you still haven't come to see my new magic act, huh?"

"You know I'll come around and see it eventually. I saw all your other shows after all. I've just had a lot going on lately. I'm a busy man you know." Johnny casually deflected as he finished eating. He reached for the cards to start shuffling the deck for their next hand.

Chance's father, Katsuro, took that opportunity to sneak in another joke at his best friend's expense. "Yeah. He's busy losing all his money that is. How much did you lose last week? Two grand? What did I tell you about bankroll management Johnny?"

"Katsuro is right Johnny. You should be more careful. You won't be getting a loan from me if you go broke, you know." Alice teased.

"Man, the two of you nag me more than my parents." Johnny whined childishly. "What's a guy gotta do to catch a break around here. I'm just trying to live my life, and here you two are, acting like old worrywarts. I thought you'd just turned 30 last month Alice. Are you too old to have fun already?" He joked.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you that it's rude to talk about a woman's age?" Chance's mother glowered. "Besides, you're only a couple years younger than me and Katsuro. Maybe if you started acting your age we wouldn't have to "nag" you like your parents as you so put it."

"You're just jealous of my youthful vigor! Call me a child all you want. That just means I get to have more fun than you boring adults, ain't that right Chance?" Johnny said with exuberance and offered the young boy a high five. Chance returned it cheerfully. Johnny was always like this. He might be childish, but it was that playful attitude that made him Chance's favorite of all his parents friends.

"Speaking of boring, enough chit chat. Let's get back to the game." Johnny declared, earning a nod of approval from Katsuro. "Should I deal you in Alice?"

"No I'll just watch." Chance's mother declined. "But I can deal for you two. How does that sound Chance? Do you want to help deal for Dad's game?"

"That sounds fun!" The young boy agreed happily. He reached over for the cards and tried to shuffle them. He wasn't particularly good at it because of his small hands and lack of coordination at his young age, but he still enjoys trying to imitate all the cool card tricks he'd seen his parents do in the past.

"Alright Kiddo. I don't want you to help your dad win against me alright?" Johnny said with faux suspicion.

"I'd never cheat." Chance assured him seriously. Earning a chuckle from his mother, who took the cards from him and finished shuffling to speed things along.

"Of course not sweetie. Now let's get the game started. What game are your dad and Johnny playing?" She asked, already knowing the answer, but humoring the youngster to let him feel more involved.

"Texas Poker!" Chance replied eagerly. This earned a bit of a laugh from all the adults at the table. Normally kids his age didn't really understand or appreciate card games as complicated as Poker but Chance loved it. His father let him be included as much as possible, and tried to teach what he could to a child so young. So far, Chance had been impressively quick to pick up and understand how the game worked and even some of the strategy involved.

"That's Texas Hold Em , but yes you're right son. So how many cards are you going to deal to me and Johnny?" His father prompted in an instructional tone.

"Two!" The excitable boy proceeded to slide two cards face down to his dad and his friend.

Chance watched intently as the two adults examined their cards. He couldn't see what they held, but that only increased his anticipation to see how the hand would turn out. You never knew what would happen in a game of poker. It was easy for Chance to understand why his dad loved the game so much. He hoped when he was older he could have a job just as fun.

After a moment of inspecting his cards Johnny winked at Chance and flicked a red 5 dollar chip into the pot. "I knew you were on your old uncle Johnny's side kid. I raise."

While Johnny was often very expressive and talkative at the table, Chance's father preferred the more common tactic of putting on a stoic "poker face". With his dark eyes and dark hair he would normally be seen as a quite average looking man, but at the poker table his indomitable expression made him quite the imposing presence. He revealed nothing with his expression and simply pushed forward a red chip of his own. "I call"

Without his parent's prompting Chance knew that this was the time where he was supposed to deal out the next three cards face up. The "flop", as it was called, turned out to be a 4 of hearts, 7 of diamonds and a Queen of spades.

"Man kid I didn't realize you wanted your old man to lose so badly! With a flop like that how can I lose? I bet another 10 bucks." Johnny laughed and slid another 2 red chips to the center of the table with a confident grin.

Chance noticed a smile spread across his father's face, which was uncharacteristic for him at the poker table. "I'm pretty sure you've got it all wrong Johnny boy. I'm getting the feeling that Chance is going to deal exactly the cards his old man needs. I raise to 25." His father declared.

"And what makes you say that?" Johnny asked, lazily flipping a poker chip along his knuckles, giving off an air of total confidence.

"Let's just call it my 'Lucky Intuition'." Chance's dad said simply.

Johnny laughed dismissively. "You're not gonna bluff me with that old nonsense Katsuro. You've been talking about that whimsical supposed 'quirk' of yours for years, but I don't buy it. We all know the truth. Those are merely the words of a man who knows he's got the worse hand." He joked amicably. "I'm all in." With a predatory grin he slid his whole stack of chips to the center of the table.

This was shaping up to be, potentially, the biggest pot of the night so far, and Chance was nearly bouncing in his mother's lap with anticipation. She ran her fingers through his hair to calm him down, but that did nothing to mute the feeling that was building up in his chest. He was excited to see how this hand would turn out, but there was also something else causing the strange sensation. This wasn't the first time he'd seen a poker hand with big bets thrown around, after all. There was something different about this time, but he couldn't describe or understand what it was exactly. All he knew for sure was that something big was about to happen, and he couldn't wait to see it unfold.

With hardly a moment's hesitation Katsuro eyed Johnny's chip stack deliberately. "How much you got left there? 250? Easy. I call." He pushed his own chips into the center with even more confidence than Johnny had displayed.

"Hah! I finally got you! I knew it was about time I got a break tonight!" Johnny shouted in delight, standing up at the table and flipping over his hand to reveal a pair of queens. "A set of Queens! Read em and weep Katsuro, and get ready to pay up. You never give me credit for having anything. It's finally time you get punished for that."

Chance's father seemed unconcerned despite the strong hand Johnny had shown. "It's not that I don't give you credit for having strong hands Johnny. In fact I thought you had at least a two pair here. I just think that I'll win all the same." Katsuro turned over his own hand to reveal an Ace and King of spades, to the surprise of everyone at the table.

Even Alice, who wasn't nearly as interested in poker as the others, knew enough to see her husband's call made no sense. "Katsuro, why in the world would you call there? He has you crushed. Maybe if you had gone all in before the flop... but calling like this? I don't understand." She looked to him in confusion.

Johnny was in shock as well, even though he was now greatly favored to win the hand. "Yeah man. What gives? I figured you had a pair of kings or aces at least. All you've got is Ace high. This isn't like you at all."

In spite of the seemingly terrible turn of events, Chance's father was still calm as ever. "I told you it was my lucky intuition. I've never had it this strong before. I wasn't joking when said I felt like this hand was going to go my way. So I just went with my gut. All that's left is to do is deal the last two cards and see how it plays out now." He shrugged and looked to Chance expectantly, waiting for him to finish the hand.

Throughout all this discussion Chance had been unusually quiet considering his father's strange play. Normally he'd be bombarding his dad with questions, but at the moment he could only stare at the cards on the table. From the moment his father's hand had been revealed the strange feeling he couldn't quite describe had amplified. At this point it was almost buzzing in his chest. Chance let out a big breath he'd begun holding at some point. "Dad's right. He's gonna win" He stated quietly.

"What do you mean kid?" Johnny turned his attention back to Chance and asked in an oddly serious tone. "You realize he's got less than five percent chance to win from this position right?"

Chance knew that. Perhaps not the exact percentages, but he did know that Johnny had a huge advantage. At the same time, that weird feeling kept pulsing inside him. He hadn't even thought about what he was saying before, but now he somehow knew it to be true. Even though he should of been saying the opposite, he just knew that his father would come out on top. "I dunno. I just feel like he's gonna win." The strange feeling seemed to thrum louder in agreement.

Johnny's eyes widened in what seemed like understanding. "Come on kid. I know you like to do everything your old man does, but you don't have to pretend to have the same make believe quirk as him too. I bet you'll get a cool quirk just like your mom soon enough." He reassured the young boy.

"Oh hush you." Alice chided. "I know you're just joking around, but I don't want Chance to worry about what his quirk will be. He's getting to that age where it will awaken soon." She leaned down kissed the top of her son's head. "You know that whether you're like your dad or like me, or even if you have a completely different quirk, we'll all love you no matter what. Right son?" She said encouragingly.

Johnny raised his hands up in mock surrender. "I didn't mean any harm. I just wanted to say that he shouldn't worry about being quirkless like his dad. I remember what it was like when I was his age. How excited I was to discover what my quirk would be. These days nearly every kid develops a quirk. I was just trying to help."

At this point Katsuro decided to speak up again. "Yes, we know. Don't worry about it Johnny. I don't mind. I know my 'lucky intuition' isn't proven or anything, and it never showed up on any quirk assessment tests. So I don't begrudge you for not believing me. How about we finish the hand now? I think once we see the results you might have a change of heart though." He chuckled softly.

Chance was glad when his dad brought everyone's attention back to the game. He felt like if he didn't see how the rest of the hand played out soon his chest would burst from all the energy humming around inside. He flipped over the next card to reveal a 10 of spades, bringing a wide grin to his father's face.

"Aw come on!" Johnny complained. "Why can't I just have a nice relaxing win like I deserve. Just my luck that the turn gives you a flush draw. I swear, this game wants me to sweat it out every hand."

The feeling in Chance's chest had somehow grown even stronger than moment's ago. His dad had a much better chance to win now than before, but he was still by far the underdog. Any spade would give his dad the flush he needed to win. Otherwise Johnny's set of three Queens would earn him the pot. It would all come down to the river card now. Unable to wait any longer with the insistent pulsing in his chest, Chance turned over the last card to reveal the winner.

Jack of spades. His dad's completed hand was 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace of Spades. A Royal Flush. The best hand in the game.

The table was silent for a second as what felt like a roar of approval erupted in Chance's chest. Then his dad and Johnny finally reacted.

"You've got to be shitting me!" Johnny shouted in disbelief.

"Hah! I told you! How many times are you going to doubt my intuition after this, huh?" Katsuro cheered in celebration. He had risen to his feet now as well, excited by his victory. "No wonder the feeling was so strong, I've never had that happen befo-"

"Johnny watch your language! Chance is sitting right here!" Alice scolded, covering her son's ears before looking down and gasping in shock.

The other two adults turned to look at Chance, who hadn't made a sound since the hand's surprising finish, and saw what had startled Alice.

Since the last card came down the pulsing in Chance's chest had reached a point he could no longer ignore. He looked down and saw that it wasn't just a strange feeling anymore. In fact, his chest was literally pulsing with a light purple glow. It had begun slowly, and was now racing up to a rapid pulsing speed that had everyone concerned and confused. Suddenly the light shot out of his chest, in the shape of a tennis ball sized orb, and proceeded to ricochet off the walls and furniture all around the room.

In response to the strange ball of light's surprise entrance chaos erupted around the table. Johnny leapt away from the table in shock, shouting, "What the hell is that thing?", right before it bounced off his head like a large marshmallow and continued its erratic journey, bouncing back and forth across every corner of the room.

Chance felt his mother's arms wrap around him protectively as his eyes stayed locked onto the strange glowing sphere. Despite the strangeness of the situation, he felt a sense of familiarity when he looked at it and was not as startled as his mother.

"Well we were just talking about how his quirk would probably show up soon right? That must be what it is." Alice tried to reassure herself. "Are you controlling the purple ball sweetie?"

Chance shook his head. "Nah, mama. It's just bouncin' around."

Chance's father didn't seem too worried either. He was as calm and collected as usual. "You're probably right Alice. It must be Chance's quirk. It doesn't seem dangerous or anything so far. Look it seems to be almost done." The ball gradually slowed down its random bouncing around the room.

Finally the thing settled down above the table, circling around the cards and chips. Now that it wasn't moving so much it was easier to see that it was pulsing soft purple light, like Chance's chest had been just before it's arrival. Alice calmed down more as she took in it's cute and non-threatening appearance.

Then a new voice entered the fray, apparently coming from the orb itself, shocking everyone once again. "Wowie! A Royal Flush!" The excited voice sounded like it belonged to a young girl. The sphere seemed to buzz and shine brighter as it shouted its joy over Katsuro's insanely lucky hand. It circled around his head enthusiastically several times before darting over to settle around Chance's shoulder.

Johnny finally found his voice again after he'd been shocked into silence by the strange little intruder. "That thing talks too?! I'd say I must be drunk, but Alice doesn't let us drink on poker night" He pouted, quickly regaining his normal playful attitude.

Chance's mother huffed impatiently at Johnny. "Can't you be serious for one moment here?" She turned to the strange little ball of light inquisitively, reaching out a finger to poke it gently. "Uhm, Hello?"

"Hiya!" The orb chirped. It giggled when Alice's finger touched it, before fluttering up to her face and bouncing off her nose "That tickles!"

Chance laughed at the strange little ball's antics before reaching out to grab hold of it in his palms. He brought it up to his face to get a better look. "What are you little ball thing? Are you my quirk?"

The sphere hummed for a moment before offering a cheery reply. "What am I? Hmmm… I dunno! I was watching the game with everyone, and then Dad got that Royal Flush! It was so exciting! I had to come out to see better!"

"So you were inside of Chance all this time?" Katsuro questioned the strange little being.

"Uh huh! Watch!" It chirped before darting forwards to disappear inside of Chance's chest for a moment, then quickly re-appeared atop his head amongst his messy hair.

Alice noticed the little thing's aura matched the same color as her son's hair and hummed in realization. "Well I suppose now we know why Chance's hair isn't blonde like mine or black like yours, Katsuro. The doctor said it was probably related to his quirk, and now we see how. That's one mystery solved, but I get the feeling we've got at least a dozen more to figure out now."

While his mother was musing about his hair color Chance could feel the little ball, that was apparently his quirk, rustling around on top of his head. It's movement messing his hair up even more than usual. "Hey! You're tickling me!" He squawked, reaching up to try and shoo it away. The orb let out a girly little giggle as it darted out of his reach.

"Hah! See kid I knew you'd have a cool quirk." Johnny congratulated. "The way it can appear and disappear from inside you is a bit like your mom's Magic Compartment quirk. I guess that makes some sense. Though that ball thing is pretty strange. What does it even do?" He wondered.

Throughout his pondering the "ball thing" in question buzzed angrily before bouncing harmlessly off of Johnny's face again. "I'm not an it! I'm a girl!" She squeaked fiercely, earning a laugh from the whole table.

Alice seemed to find this especially amusing. "Yes Johnny. Don't be rude to the little lady! I for one am glad that I finally have someone to help me keep you boys in line now." The little orb seemed to appreciate this sentiment as she floated over to nuzzle Alice's cheek gently. Then it turned back to Johnny and blew a raspberry to everyone's shock and amusement.

"Just what I need, another little brat sassing me. Stop laughing over there Katsuro. It's not that funny!" Johnny groused to himself while the rest of the table laughed at his annoyance.

Chance's dad ignored him and continued to laugh at his expense. "I don't know about that Johnny. I kind of like our little newcomer. She showed up right when I got a Royal Flush. She's like a little lady luck."

The little sphere seemed to approve of that statement. "Yeah! Lady Luck!" She chirped like a happy child, zooming over to circle Katsuro's head again.

Chance thought she acted like she was very young, probably only as old as he was. That would make a lot of sense actually, since she was his quirk after all.

"Well this has certainly been an eventful evening." Katsuro settled back into his seat. "You know in all my years of playing poker, that was the first Royal Flush I've ever had. Then little Chance's quirk manifested as well, and it was somehow even more incredible. I had heard of sentient quirks before on the news and other TV shows, but I never thought I'd ever see one for myself."

"What does sentient mean mama?" Chance questioned his mother, clearly confused.

"It means she can think for herself, which she certainly seems to. You said you weren't controlling her earlier. Right?" She answered patiently.

"Right" Chance nodded, beginning to understand. "So my quirk's like a separate person?"

"Sort of sweetie. At least from what we can see so far. I'm sure we'll learn more about how your quirk works as you get older okay?" His mom pat him on the head reassuringly.

"Okay" Chance agreed easily. "What should we call her mama?" He looked over to his quirk inquisitively. "Do you have a name?"

"Nuh uh." The orb floated back and forth as if shaking its head.

"Well that won't do, will it?" Alice said with a kind smile towards her son's new quirk. "If we're going to have a new little lady in the household she's going to need a name that suits her!"

"She's my lady luck dad said." Chance added cheerfully. He hadn't really thought too much about what his quirk would be before today. He assumed he'd have something like his mom's quirk, but after seeing what his quirk turned out to be he thought he got something way better. How many people's quirks could actually talk? His quirk was like a friend that would always be around to play with. As an only child, it was everything he never quite knew he wanted before today.

Katsuro smiled warmly seeing the joy on his son's face. "Well since you're our little lady luck, how does the name Fortuna sound? Would you like that?"

Chance himself decided pipe up "I like it!" while his quirk zoomed across the table again to nuzzle his father. "Fortuna!" She cheered, then returned back to floating close by Chance's shoulder. "It's perfect! Talking to everyone has been so exciting!"

"Perhaps a bit too exciting even." Alice remarked as she stood up, shifting Chance to her hip to carry him with her. "I think it's about time for this little boy to get his bath and go to bed. Don't you think?"

"Awww, but Mama I only got to deal one hand!" Chance whined. "And what about Fortuna? She wanted to see too!"

"I wanna play!" Fortuna zoomed around, making several circles around his mother's head.

Alice rubbed her forehead in exasperation. "Now I've got two of you little troublemakers to deal with, huh?" She grabbed hold of Fortuna gently and pushed her into Chance's hands to keep her still. "You've been watching for an hour already Chance and you know your bedtime is coming up. Fortuna isn't going away. You two can watch again later. Besides, you already saw the best hand that'll happen all night. I wouldn't be surprised if that one crushed poor Johnny's spirits so much he won't want to play again for a week!"

"What was that?" Johnny huffed. "If that's what you think then you're sorely mistaken! I've got to win my money back from this lucky scrub before I'm done!" He sat back down, eagerly reshuffling the deck.

Chance's dad let out a long suffering sigh. "Son listen to your mother and go take your bath. I've got to show Johnny boy here that he's tilted. This is exactly how he ended up losing that two grand last week. What did I say about bankroll management?"

Undeterred, Johnny pointed at Katsuro. "I'll make you eat those words old man!"

"He's funny when he loses Mama." Chance and Fortuna laughed at Johnny's antics as his mother carried him out of the room towards the bath. Once they reached it he yawned loudly.

"See Mama always knows best. I told you it was nearly bedtime." Alice chided gently. "Let's get you washed up so you and Fortuna can get a good night's rest okay?"

After an uneventful bath Chance's mother tucked him into bed. Fortuna decided that was her queue to lazily drift back into his chest and disappear. "Where's Fortuna?" He called, slightly worried. His new friend just got here! He didn't want his quirk to go away so soon.

Chance had nothing to worry about, however, as he heard Fortuna's voice respond right away. "I'm right here silly. Like always!" She reassured him cheerily.

After Alice watched the little exchange she leaned down and gave her son a kiss on the forehead. "Sweetie I know we said earlier that Fortuna is a bit like a separate person, but she's still your quirk. She's a part of you, and while she might have a mind of her own, you and her will always be connected."

She sat down on the edge of his bed and began stroking his hair gently. "I remember the day when I first discovered my quirk you know. It was like I finally found that last part of me I had been missing. I kept putting all my toys into the Magic Compartment and pulling them back out, trying to see how much I could fit." She chuckled softly, thinking back fondly on the memories. "I'm sure you feel the same way about your quirk as I did back then, don't you?"

Chance closed his eyes as he enjoyed his mother's affection. Exhaustion from the eventful day began to catch up to him. "Yeah. Fortuna's awesome." He mumbled sleepily.

"Of course I am!" She laughed. "Don't forget it!".

"Yes she is. But awesome or not it's time for you to sleep Chance, so I don't want you talking to your quirk all night okay? Good night sweetheart." His mother smoothed his hair one last time and then got up, turning his light off on the way out.

"Night mama"

Despite how tired he was, Chance couldn't fall asleep right away. The events of the night kept swirling around in his head. He had a quirk now! He wanted to get up and see what she could do. He wanted to talk to Fortuna more, but he didn't want to make his mom angry either, so he stayed silent.

" _You don't have to make noise for me to hear silly."_ Fortuna's voice appeared right alongside his own thoughts, much to his surprise.

" _You can hear what I'm thinking?"_ Chance thought hesitantly.

" _Of course. I'm part of you, like mama said. I've always been here."_ She hummed softly " _That poker game was so much fun. It made me so happy I just couldn't stay quiet anymore."_

" _I'm happy you can talk now."_ Chance's parents didn't have any friends with children, so he didn't get to spend a lot of time with other kids his age, except when he had to go to daycare on occasion. His parents preferred to try to take care of him themselves as much as they could.

He loved his mom and dad, and was happy they spent so much time with him, but sometimes he wished he got to play with other kids more often. Now, with Fortuna around, it was like he had a real friend.

" _Of course! I'm your best friend silly. I can't wait to play together tomorrow!"_ Fortuna assured him in response to his unvoiced thoughts. That would take some getting used to, but the thought of getting used to it made him happy all the same.

" _Me neither Fortuna. First thing in the morning!"_ Chance thought happily as he finally drifted off to sleep.

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 **A/N: Well there you have it. We got to meet little Fortuna, my inspiration for finally deciding to write a fanfiction of my own after years of reading on this website.**

 **This is my first attempt at writing a story of my own, and while when most people say that they ask for people to go easy on them I'm going to go ahead and do the opposite. I want to know what you all think, and while it would be nice to hear what I've done well and continue that, it would be even more helpful for me if you tell me what you felt didn't work and why so that I know where to focus my efforts to improve! The most important thing for me is to make this story the best that it can be, and constructive criticism will be the only way I can do that.**

 **With that said I hope you enjoyed the chapter and have a Merry Christmas Eve! I'll be posting another chapter every day this week to celebrate.**

 **Next Chapter: We'll learn a lot more about Chance's quirk. Let's see what little Fortuna can do.**


	2. Raising the Stakes

**A/N: Thanks again to those of you who reviewed the first chapter. I went back and edited it to fix as much of the punctuation errors as i could find, and hopefully this chapter will be a bit more polished too.**

 **Underlined speech in this chapter indicates the speech is in Japanese.**

 **Disclaimer: I still own nothing.**

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 **Chapter 2: Raising the Stakes**

In the five years since Fortuna had first appeared there had rarely been a dull moment for Chance and his family, mostly due to the seemingly boundless energy she possessed. Today was no exception. Chance's family had just arrived in Japan for their yearly summer vacation to visit his father's parents.

Chance loved visiting his grandparents. He also enjoyed seeing all the sights Tokyo had to offer. Las Vegas had a lot of cool stuff to see, sure, but Tokyo was so different from anything he had seen in America. But after being cooped up for a twelve hour plane trip, and now stuck in traffic in the taxi, he was understandably a bit stir crazy. "Mom how much longer till we get there?" He complained again.

"I told you we'll be there soon. I know you're feeling restless, but just chill out for a bit would you?" Alice said from her seat to his left with forced patience. She loved her son tremendously, but he certainly knew how to get on her nerves when he was bored.

At that point Fortuna flitted over from her usual position on Chance's shoulder to look out the window his mother was sitting next to. "Ooh we're almost there? I wanna see! Are there any of those pachinko places Dad told me about around here? Can we go to one?" She chattered, excitable as she always was.

Over the years Chance wasn't the only one who had grown and changed. While Fortuna had started out as a simple glowing ball now she most commonly took the form of a tiny girl about 4 inches tall. She was reminiscent of a pixie but she had no wings, simply floating around surrounded by the same light purple aura she'd always possessed. When she first discovered that she could take on different forms she was only able to take a tiny purple humanoid shape. Gradually she learned how to alter her appearance more precisely, adding facial features, hair, changing colors, and most recently she'd even begun give herself clothes.

Her style decisions were often as crazy and off the wall as she was, and today even more than usual. She'd decided to dress herself as a Joker from a deck of cards, with a red, white, and black jester's costume complete with face paint and jingling hat..

"If you think that you and Chance can get into a pachinko parlor then you're even crazier than you look right now Fortuna." Katsuro interjected with a chuckle from his spot on the right.

Fortuna pushed herself away from the window and flopped down on Chance's lap, crossing her arms grumpily. "Aww, no fair! That game sounded like a lot of fun!" She pouted loudly. "Can we at least play the casino game on your laptop dad?"

"You know you're grounded from using the laptop until after we get back home." Chance's father said sternly.

"But why?" Fortuna whined.

"You know exactly why little lady." Alice lectured. "I know you didn't forget that you broke your father's laptop last week. We were only just barely able to get a new one before our trip."

That incident was the latest and greatest mishap Fortuna had caused. Fortuna loved to play anything that had elements of random chance involved, such as dice or cards, but her favorites were always the classic casino games that were common in Las Vegas like blackjack, craps, and slots. Obviously Chance was much too young to play in an actual casino so they substituted by playing casino games on his father's laptop.

Chance enjoyed gambling nearly as much as Fortuna so it wasn't uncommon for them to play for several hours at a time, especially in the latest game his father had gotten for them. It had more slots and table games for them to try than ever before. The longer they played the more excited Fortuna always seemed to get. That day was a particularly long session, and when they won a longshot bet at the craps table, that Fortuna had insisted they make, she seemingly couldn't contain herself any longer.

"I told you that one was a winner!" She cheered, then began spinning in delight and hopping across the desk. As she spun faster and faster, smaller beads of energy began shooting off of her, knocking clutter off the desk, bouncing off bookshelves and other furniture as well.

It wasn't uncommon for Fortuna to have these sorts of random displays when games of luck were involved. She'd make jackpot sounds like a slot machine, or shoot off a little lightshow, but this time was much more destructive than she'd ever been in the past. Chance realized she was getting out of hand and tried to rein her in. "Fortuna be careful! Watch what you're doing!"

He was too late, however, and her unguided bouncing had taken her right to the laptop they'd been playing on. She slammed down onto the keyboard hard enough to break it and then crashed into the screen as well, which cracked and turned off. Only then did she finally notice the results of her celebration. "Woopsie! What happened to the game? I hope we didn't lose those credits we just won." She chirped unapologetically.

"You have to keep Fortuna under better control Chance!" His mother's reprimanding brought him back to the present. "I know she's your friend, but she's also your quirk, son. You're not the only person with a quirk that can cause damage, everyone has to keep their powers in check. It's your responsibility to make sure she doesn't cause any harm. Okay?"

"Yes mom I know." Chance assured her sheepishly. He knew she was right. While Fortuna did have a mind of her own she wasn't actually a person. She had a one track mind and rarely cared for much of anything besides the gambling games she loved. While she was smart enough to talk, she was still more like a pet of sorts than a human. It was his job to make sure she was well behaved and he had to start taking that more seriously.

"That's a good boy." Katsuro squeezed his son's shoulder. "We just made the turn onto my parent's street so we'll be there in just another minute or two. Son can you have Fortuna rest for a bit? I think Grandpa would like at least a few moments of peace when we first arrive."

"Sure thing Dad." Chance reached down and picked up Fortuna in one palm. "You heard him little lady. Rest inside for a while. It's all gonna be boring adult talk for a while anyways." She tried to ignore him at first, crossing her arms over her chest, but after he used his finger to tickle her stomach she finally giggled and relented.

"Aw fine. I hope we get to play more soon though!" She floated up to his chest and nuzzled it for a moment before sinking inside.

The taxi pulled up to his grandparents house and it looked just the same as Chance remembered it. A modestly sized home with his grandmother's garden in the small backyard, looking as vibrant and well tended as ever.

Chance scrambled to get out of the car behind his father, eager to stretch his legs, then helped bring their luggage inside where his grandmother was waiting to greet them.

"Hideyoshi hurry, Katsuro is here!" His grandma shouted up the stairs. She was a short woman in her mid 60's with a charming demeanor that seemed to fill the whole house. She rushed forward to pull his father down into a fierce hug. "It's so good to see you son. I've been looking forward to your visit so much I could hardly sit still today! Alice did you cut your hair? It looks great! And of course we can't forget my favorite grandson can we? You're getting so tall! Just like your father when he was your age you know." She spoke rapidly, moving to hug Chance and his mother in turn.

"Give them a moment to breathe would you Hiroko? I was just preparing the guest room. They'll be here a whole week, there's no need to rush." His grandfather, Hideyoshi Kojima, was a tall man, at just over six foot, who always had a stern expression on his face. He walked down the stairs and stopped for a moment to level a discerning gaze upon Chance's father, before finally offering his own stiff hugs to his son and his family. "So everything went well with your flight?"

Katsuro wilted a bit under his father's scrutiny. "Uhm, yes, actually our plane arrived a bit early so we made good time."

"Good." Hideyoshi said gruffly and grabbed one of their suitcases. "I'll take your luggage up to the room. You can go relax in the living room. You've had a long journey."

"Wait Dad! I can help with that." Chance's father offered, but Hideyoshi had waved him off and was already carrying the luggage up stairs.

"Oh don't mind him son. You know how he is." Hiroko ushered them further into the house to sit down in the comfortable living room. "Besides, he's right. You all should relax after such a long flight."

Chance settled into an armchair while his parent's shared the couch with his grandmother. Alice let out a sigh of contentment as she settled into the comfortable cushion, leaning back and stretching out her legs. "Thank you so much Hiroko, you're too kind. It feels so nice to sit in a proper seat after being crammed into that plane for twelve hours. There's never enough leg room."

"Alice I told you to call me Mom. We're family." Hiroko gently admonished her daughter in law. "Your Japanese is getting better every year you know. Your accent is much less noticeable now. I'm quite impressed!"

Chance's mother blushed slightly at the praise. "Thank you. We've all been practicing speaking more Japanese at home. I think it's important that Chance is fluent. I want him to be close to you and his grandfather, especially since my father passed away a couple years ago. I have no other relatives left so you're his only extended family."

"That's very sweet of you dear. And I do appreciate it. I was no good at English back in school, and have hardly used it since. Thankfully you all are better at languages than me or I wouldn't even be able to talk with my grandson!" She looked over to the boy in question. "Speaking of my grandson. You've been awfully quiet today Chance. Don't tell me you've grown shy all of the sudden?"

Chance had begun to grow bored throughout the conversation and was looking around the room distractedly. He could feel Fortuna thrumming in his chest and heard her singing quietly in the back of his mind to amuse herself, but he could tell that her patience wouldn't last much longer. He perked up, however, when Hiroko addressed him. "Me? Shy? Never! It's just hard to get a word in when you talk enough for the whole family grandma!" He joked.

"That's more like the cheeky little boy I love!" His grandmother smiled. "But where's your partner in crime? Is she not feeling well today?"

"I'm right here Grandma!" Fortuna shot out of Chance's chest over to Hiroko as if summoned. "Lady Luck at your service!" She spun and then bowed with a flourish.

"There she is!" Hiroko clapped her hands together. "Aren't you the cutest little thing? What's that outfit you have on dear? That's definitely new from your last visit."

"Yeah! I'm a Joker today Grandma. See?" She pointed to her head and shook it back and forth, making the bells on her hat jingle loudly. "That's the wildcard you know."

"Yes, you're certainly as wild as ever." Hideyoshi entered the room after carrying up all the luggage. "Isn't it a bit early to be making so much noise already?" He grumbled sitting down in his favorite chair straight across from the television.

"Would it kill you to lighten up a bit Hideyoshi?" Hiroko chastised. "Our son only comes to visit once a year after all."

"Well maybe he would be able to visit more often if he hadn't moved across the world to play his silly card games!" Hideyoshi groused.

"Starting up this old argument again? We just got here Dad!" Katsuro retorted. While he and his father were very similar in looks, arguments between them were common, especially about his choice of career.

"Enough bickering! We should be enjoying each other's company." Hiroko played the role of peacemaker as always. "Besides if Katsuro hadn't moved to Las Vegas he would of never met this lovely wife of his after all." She changed the topic.

"Right, right. I do admit that he's managed to make a nice family for himself out there in America." Hideyoshi relaxed a bit and offered Alice a kind smile. "Mostly thanks to you I'm sure. Katsuro is lucky he met someone as well grounded as you to keep him in check. He sent us a video of your magic show and I have to say some of those tricks were incredible. I hadn't realized you were so talented Alice."

"Oh yes we watched it together." Hiroko jumped in."How in the world did you do the part with the floating car dear?"

Alice accepted the praise graciously. "I'm glad you liked the show, but a magician must never reveal her tricks after all." She winked.

Throughout the adult's discussion Fortuna had floated back over to lay lazily on Chance's shoulder, head hanging upside down and legs kicking back and forth in the air. "Chance I'm bored!" She complained. "When are we gonna get to do something fun?"

The young boy was doing his best to keep his quirk in line, but he was beginning to feel restless again himself. "Hey Grandma can Fortuna and I go play in your garden for a bit?" He asked, earning a quick, "Of course dear.", in response as the adults continued catching up.

After getting permission he rushed upstairs to grab his playing cards from their luggage so he and Fortuna would have something to do, only to discover that he'd forgotten them back at home. Disappointed at his mistake, he wandered out to the garden hoping to at least stretch his legs for a bit.

"What are we gonna do out here?" Fortuna flitted around looking at several of the plants before becoming disinterested. "I wanna play some blackjack!"

"Well we have no cards and you got us in trouble so we can't use the laptop either." Chance looked around the small backyard disgruntled. It was little more than a square area with cement floor surrounded by pots containing the flowers and herbs his grandmother tended. There was also a small bonsai tree on a little stand under the window that was a new addition since his last visit.

"This sucks!" Fortuna despaired. She flew down to the ground in front of him, laid on her stomach and began pounding her tiny fists against the floor childishly.

"Well, I suppose it's both of our faults." Chance sighed, admitting his mistake with the cards, and sat down alongside her. "But why did you have to break Dad's laptop anyways?"

Fortuna rolled over and sat up, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I dunno. I didn't really mean to. I just wasn't thinking about it."

"But why did you start exploding, or whatever that was, in the first place?" He persisted, trying to get to the root of the matter. Despite being together for 5 years now Chance still didn't understand Fortuna's reasoning a lot of the time. She wasn't very good at explaining herself and had little patience for serious discussions, but at the moment they had nothing better to do so he was going to do his best to make sure they didn't make the same mistake again.

"Well we'd been playing for a while and doing well so I was getting really amped up you know!" Fortuna smiled at the memory. "Then when we hit that huge win on the longshot bet, the energy from that one on top of all the fun before it just kinda spilled out. I couldn't hold it all in anymore."

"So the gambling itself, what…? Powers you up or something? Or does it only happen when we win?" Chance pondered, going over different explanations in his head.

"You know I have lots of fun win or lose. It's more about how much the wager is. Big bets are way more fun!" She spread her arms out wide to appear as large as she could. "That last roll you finally agreed to put a big bet on the longshot, remember?"

"Yeah I remember." He nodded. "I still don't know why you were so insistent on making it in the first place. Even though we won, the odds on that one are terrible! I'm telling you it's a sucker bet."

"I told you it felt lucky!" Fortuna pumped her fist in the air victoriously. "And I turned out to be right huh!"

Chance couldn't disagree with that so he let her have her little impromptu celebration for a moment before continuing. "I guess that's true, but let's not forget about what happened afterwards. We need to find a way for you to let off all that energy you get when we play less destructively or something. Otherwise you might just blow up dad's laptop again and he might never let us play again!"

Fortuna stopped celebrating as terror spread across her face. "What? That would be terrible! Would he really do that?"

"You're telling me." Chance replied. "And he would if I can't keep my quirk in check. So I'm going to have to train you better or something…"

"Were doomed!" Fortuna wailed comically, rocking back and forth in the fetal position.

"Oh chill out for a second little pixie." Chance, used to her rapid mood swings by now, picked her up and poked her stomach gently. "It's not the end of the world. You just need to use the energy in smaller bursts or something, so it doesn't destroy stuff."

"How do I do that?" Fortuna asked dumbly.

"What do you mean? It's your energy right? What else can you do with it besides just shooting it out randomly?" He said in exasperation.

Fortuna thought in silence for a long moment, her face scrunched up in deep concentration. "I dunno! Lots of things!" She finally spoke up cheerfully. "I'm bored Chance, can we play some blackjack?"

"Helpful as ever, aren't you Fortuna?" Chance sighed sarcastically. These sorts of shenanigans weren't uncommon for Fortuna, so Chance had been forced to get used to her melodramatic behavior. Used to her behavior or not though, trying to have any sort of serious discussion with Fortuna would be taxing on anyone's patience. "In case you've forgotten, we don't have any cards. So unless you can make some appear by magic or something we can't play."

Fortuna perked up at that as a look of realization spread across her face. "That's a great idea!" She squirmed out of Chance's hand and floated up to be level with his head. Her purple aura brightened for a moment and suddenly a deck of cards appeared in her hands. They looked mostly normal save for the large letter "F" on the card backs and the slight purple glow around them, much like Fortuna herself.

Chance gaped at the little jester proudly holding a deck of cards as tall as herself for several moments before he exclaimed. "What? I wasn't being serious! Since when can you do that? Are those real? What are they made of?"

"Woah slow down. I wanted to play blackjack not twenty questions!" Fortuna teased. "I told you I can do lots of stuff! I guess they're made up as the same stuff as me? Whatever that is." She shrugged. "Now let's get this game started!" Her and the cards floated down to the ground where they shuffled themselves, floating around just as easily as Fortuna herself.

"Wait a minute would you Fortuna. I still can't believe you can just make stuff out of nowhere like that. This is so cool! I've got so many questions though." The possibilities of this new found discovery were racing through Chance's mind. "Let me see those cards. What do they feel like?" He wondered as he reached for the deck, wanting to see if they were truly solid or just an illusion of some sort.

Fortuna raced forward and pushed his hand away before he could reach the deck however. "No! I wanna play! They're my cards, and you can't see them unless you play blackjack with me." The cards floated further away from him as Fortuna stuck her tongue out at him flippantly.

"Ugh fine. We'll play then. You be the dealer." Chance relented. Fortuna could be very stubborn sometimes. Especially when it came to gambling. It would be easier for him to just go along with what she wanted than to try to argue with her at this point.

"Yay! Finally!" Fortuna cheered, bringing the cards back down to the ground. She dealt out two to Chance face up, a 7 and a 4, and two to herself, one face up and one face down. Her face up card, as the dealer, ended up being a Jack.

The object of the game was for the player to try to get a hand that adds up to 21, or as close as possible. He could ask to be dealt as many more cards as he wished, but if his total added up to more than 21 he would lose. Once he had as many cards as he wanted, the dealer would then reveal their second card and then try to beat the total the player had gotten.

They played this game quite a lot so Chance made the easy decision. "Hit me." He motioned for Fortuna to give him another card, which ended up being a 10, making his total 21. Perfect.

"Ooh nice!" Fortuna congratulated. "Now it's my turn." She flipped over her second card which was a 6. If she got a 5 she could still tie the player's score so she added another card which was an 8, bringing her total over 21. "Dealer busts. You win!"

After the simple exchange Chance reached down to grab the cards he'd been dealt. Sure enough, they felt like real playing cards. He was only slightly surprised as he flipped them over in his hands, bending them a bit and examining as best he could. With all the crazy stuff Fortuna was prone to do he decided he shouldn't be surprised by much any more.

Fortuna didn't have too much patience for his experimentation however, and before long the cards in his hands disappeared in a pop of purple energy. "Were supposed to be playing silly!"

"I know, I know." Chance raked his fingers back through his lavender locks, slightly frustrated. "I just want to test out your new trick Fortuna. Can you blame me? Besides, shouldn't we have put those cards in the discard pile?"

"Less testing, more playing!" She insisted, dealing him more cards as her cards from the previous hand vanished as well. "When we need to reshuffle I'll just make a new deck." She waved her hand dismissively.

They continued playing like this for a while. After each hand Chance would test the limits of Fortuna's new creations. From what he could see they were indeed made up of the same energy as Fortuna herself, but they were only temporary. He tested their sturdiness, and when they were bent too much or torn they would disappear on their own. He threw one of them against the fence surrounding the garden and it popped in a flash of light. He amused himself throwing the cards after each hand, trying to hit some of his grandma's plants around the garden to test his accuracy. While it was certainly flashy and fun, the cards had very little substance to them. They would hardly rustle the plants they hit before vanishing.

When it was time to reshuffle the deck Fortuna did as she promised and a new deck appeared before her with little fanfare. "This is kinda boring if you don't bet anything, don't you think?" She sighed.

Chance nodded in agreement. "Yeah but it's not like we have any poker chips or anything. What am I supposed to bet? In the computer version we had credits to play with."

"Hmm you're right." Fortuna thought for a moment. Then a light bulb flashed above her head, quite literally, and a ding sounded out before the bulb dissipated as quickly as it came. "You're full of great ideas today Chance! I'll give you some chips to play our games without the laptop." A couple of white chips with the number 1 on them appeared around her then fell down next to Chance where they multiplied into a large stack.

"That's pretty cool." Chance began shuffling a stack of the chips on the ground. "Why are they all only worth 1 though? I know you like to throw around big bets little miss high roller." He teased.

"It's no fun if you use infinite money cheats. You know that silly! You'll have to work your way up to the big leagues." Fortuna twirled in the air in front of him several times. "Oh I can hardly wait. It's going to be so exciting!"

"Work my way up? I thought we were just gonna play out here for a while until dinner or something." Chance asked, confused by her statement.

"We were, but then I had an even better idea! We could play like this every day instead. We won't even need Dad's laptop or anything. We can play whenever or wherever we want. It'll be the best!" She zipped up in front of him, close enough that he could clearly see the huge smile spread across her tiny face. "Wouldn't that be fun Chance?"

Her enthusiasm was infectious and Chance couldn't help but smile as well. "Of course Fortuna, that'd be great, but are you sure that would work? It's not quite so simple you know. Are we gonna have to count up the chips every time we stop and make a note of how many are there? What if some of them get popped like the cards, or lost, or we just miscount them." He reminded gently.

"I'll keep track of how many you have, no problem!" She poked her chest with her thumb proudly, earning an incredulous stare from Chance.

"Uhm are you sure about that Fortuna? I mean it would probably work for one session but after that I doubt you'll remember all the numbers and stuff every time we play for the whole trip." He asked incredulously. Fortuna would hardly pay attention to anything for even the length of a single television show. The idea of her keeping track of numbers and balances seemed more than bit questionable.

"The computer does it all the time. So can I!" She assured, as if that were perfectly reasonable.

Fortuna was more excited at this new idea than he'd seen her for a long time, so he decided to humor her, despite how far fetched her little plan seemed. "Okay so you'll keep track of what I win, sure. But what happens if I lose all my chips? Can we never play again? It's not as simple as you're making it out to be."

"Hmm… I guess you're right." She floated down to the ground and began pacing back and forth deep in thought. She seemed to be more serious about this than Chance anticipated, and was actually giving it some real consideration. "I don't want the game to be over either just from a bit of bad luck. It would also suck to be playing lowbie stakes forever because you're afraid to lose all your chips."

For a moment she seemed about to give up on her plan, but then her pacing stopped suddenly and she pointed up towards Chance victoriously. "I've got it! In our computer game if you lose all your credits you get to start back over with the starting money so we'll have your starting chips be 100. You'll always start with at least that much every day. Sound fair?"

Chance nodded so she continued. "Good, but I have one idea different than normal. In the game you never want to make big bets because you don't want to lose too much in one go. It gets really boring! So here's my solution. At the end of every day we'll tally your chips up. If you have more than you started with, great! I'll add those to your balance. If you have less then it works different. Instead of losing that full amount, your overall bankroll will only go down on two conditions. If you end the day with less than half of what you started with your balance gets cut by 5%. If you completely bust then you can't play any more that day and lose 10%."

This was a lot more in depth than anything Chance could of expected from Fortuna. "Uhm, Okay. That's a bit complicated but I suppose it works." As long as he played smart and won more days than he lost he would gain chips over time and eventually be able to play very high stakes games as Fortuna seemed to want. He could even play a bit crazy on some days without totally ruining his bankroll if it went poorly, as long as he didn't do that too often. The more he thought about it the more he liked the rules Fortuna had suggested. "That actually sounds pretty fun, but are you sure you'll be able to keep track of all this by memory? I know I couldn't."

"I knew you'd like it!" Fortuna cheered, darting back to the ground as the cards began shuffling themselves again. "Don't worry about all the numbers stuff. I told you I've got it handled! Now let's play!"

Chance rolled his eyes at her confidence. He'd take her word for now. It didn't matter too much after all, and it would become apparent if Fortuna was actually serious or just being silly soon enough. "Whatever you say. I guess we'll start off small then." He flipped a chip forward off his thumb.

The hand went by very quick with Fortuna getting a blackjack. She zoomed forward and snatched up his chip, spinning it on her little hand and winking at him before it popped out of existence. "Better luck next time!"

Her silly behavior earned a smile from Chance as he picked up his cards to continue his own little game of target practice from earlier. He decided to aim at the bonsai tree this time, and the card found its mark, striking the leaves. That's where things went wrong.

Where previously the cards had faded harmlessly upon contact with their targets, this one struck the tree with enough force to break off one of the well pruned little branches when it popped against the small tree. The force also shook the whole thing enough that the whole pot fell off it's little stand and smashed against the floor much to Chance's dismay. "Woah! Why was that one so much more powerful than all the others Fortuna?" He cried out in shock.

Fortuna only laughed at the display. "Haha wow! That one was a doozie huh, Chance? I'm not surprised though, you bet my chip that time after all. The game is more fun when you have stakes to play for. See?" She zipped over to the fallen tree to get a better look, kicking around the soil that had spilled from the broken pot around playfully.

Chance buried his face in his palms and groaned. "I'm gonna be in so much trouble." He got to his feet and prepared to go face the music and apologize for his carelessness. "Stop messing with that stuff. I have to go tell grandma what happened."

Fortuna looked over at Chance, surprised. "But what about our game?"

"Game time's over now Fortuna. Come now." He beckoned her to him

"Aw, Okay then." The cards and chips on the ground vanished as she flew over to sit in his hand. "Thanks for playing with me Chance. I can't wait to play some more later!" She said earnestly with a wave before disappearing into his palm.

Her childlike attitude was cute as ever and it brought a small smile to his face before he remembered the task ahead of him. He set his shoulders and sighed, "Might as well get this over with then.", and went inside to confess.

* * *

 **A/N: Let the games begin! We got to see a lot more of Fortuna's personality and a bit of hints as to the mechanics of Chance's quirk. Be sure to let me know what you think of her! Any ideas of what else she might be able to do?**

 **Hopefully the explanation of how Blackjack works isn't too tedious, but I felt like I had to give at least a basic overview for those who might not know. There will be heavy gambling themes throughout the story if its not clear already but I certainly won't go into detail on every hand or anything.**

 **Hopefully the Japanese speech doesn't look too weird the way I've decided to format it. I'll obviously forgo that in the future when it becomes the primary language.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading everyone and have a Merry Christmas!**

 **Next Chapter: Chance is going to have his first run in with some canon characters as the family vacation continues.**


	3. A Lucky Day

**Disclaimer: Wait hold on let me check... Nope still own nothing. Darn.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: A Lucky Day**

The consequences of Chance's accident with the bonsai tree didn't end up being quite as bad as he had feared. He had received an inordinately long and very stern lecture from his grandfather about keeping his quirk in check, but his grandma, being the very kind and tolerant woman she was, mostly laughed it off. "Oh relax Hideyoshi, he's just a boy. These days lots of kids have quirks that can be a bit volatile. A few accidents here and there are to be expected, and there was no harm done really. It wasn't too expensive anyway. We'll just get a new one."

"If you ask me, people are much too reckless using their quirks all the time these days!" His grandpa harrumphed. "Especially those heroes always prancing around everywhere making a mess of things."

Hiroko sighed patiently. "They're not prancing. They're saving people, and that's their job dear."

"Well they could certainly be a bit more careful about it is all I'm saying!" Chance's grandfather insisted. Both of his grandparents were quirkless. In their generation quirks were not quite as ever present than they had become in recent years, and Hideyoshi in particular was unhappy with the way things were changing in society now that quirks had become so widespread and interwoven into everyday life.

Chance's parents decided to take pity upon him after seeing the scolding he received from his grandpa and hearing his explanation of what had happened. "Alright son I can see you know that you've done wrong. Since you've already apologized to your grandmother on your own I'll let you off easy. I'm glad you're being more serious about learning about your quirk. Just be more careful with it from here on out until you understand Fortuna's capabilities better okay?" His father told him firmly.

Their vacation continued mostly peacefully after that. As peaceful as was possible with Fortuna around at least. She and Chance often found their way to the center of attention with his cheeky comments and her goofy behavior. Even steely old Hideyoshi wasn't immune, and he found himself chuckling at the energetic pair several times during their stay.

After a week full of family meals, visiting interesting sights around the city, and even a trip to Universal Studios Japan, Chance could happily say this had been his favorite family vacation ever. He was a bit disappointed that they would be heading home tomorrow.

They still had one day left here in Japan however, and they were going to make the most of it. Chance's family was currently at a large shopping mall, looking around to pick up a few last minute souvenirs and nick-nacks before heading home tomorrow. Katsuro had also insisted that they try to find a replacement for the bonsai tree Chance had destroyed. Hiroko tried to tell him it was unnecessary, and that he shouldn't trouble himself, but he wouldn't hear a word of it.

"Fine if you want to be stubborn. You suit yourself Katsuro." Chance's grandma declared. "But I'd rather go find my grandson a gift to take home tomorrow than worry about some silly plant. What do you say Chance?"

"A gift? You're the best Grandma!" He rushed over to hug her.

"I thought you'd say that." She smiled warmly. "We'll go check out some toy and game stores while your Dad gets a new tree. Then we can meet up at the food court in an hour to eat before we head back home. Alright?"

"Okay sweetie, be good for Grandma and we'll meet back up for food soon. I saw they had tempura in the food court. You wanted to try that right?" Chance's mother leaned down to kiss his cheek. Everyone agreed with the plan and he and his grandmother went off on their own while his mom, dad, and grandfather all left together.

In the first couple stores they looked Chance didn't see anything he particularly wanted. After a while of searching he felt a bit bad for wasting his Grandma's time so he suggested a video game he was only mildly interested in. However, Hiroko seemed to know he didn't like it all that much."Come now sweetie I can tell that one isn't your favorite."

"Yeah, I just don't want to seem ungrateful or anything. I don't want to be too picky." Chance admitted sheepishly. "Besides, I still feel kind of bad for what happened with your garden."

"I already told you it's no trouble dear." She ruffled his hair affectionately. "We'll find something you like, we just have to keep looking. How about we try that store over there?" She directed him to a smaller store full of older and less popular games than the other shops they'd seen. "You never know what you'll find in places like this."

Chance definitely saw a few interesting things as he looked around, but none stood out above the others until he heard his grandmother call out to him. "Come look at this. I think I found something you'll like."

He found her in front of a display of older handheld games and she pointed to one near the bottom. His eyes widened when realized what it was. "Woah! I didn't even know that those even existed."

Fortuna recognized it as well. "Is that a portable pachinko game? That's so cool! We've gotta try it Chance. Please, please please?" She shouted, frantically tugging on his hand to very little effect.

"Relax little one." Hiroko laughed. "I'd be happy to get it for you if that's what you want?" She asked.

Chance smiled gratefully. "That would be perfect. I've been wondering about that game ever since Dad mentioned it. As you can see Fortuna won't shut up about it either." He laughed.

A few moments later they had completed the purchase. There weren't many other customers in the store so they didn't have to wait in line. "Thanks so much Grandma." Chance hugged her again to show his appreciation.

"Think nothing of it dear." She gave his shoulders a loving squeeze. "I can't help but spoil you a bit when you come to visit. I hope when you play your game you remember how much your grandma loves you."

"I will. And I love you too!" Chance assured his grandmother earnestly.

Since they'd finished quicker than expected they decided to head back to the food court early to save a table and sit down while they waited for the rest of the family to return.

Throughout the walk Fortuna kept trying to get inside the bag and open the new gift. "Come on Chance let me see it! I wanna play already!"

After the third time he had to shoo her away his patience ran out. On her fourth attempt he snatched her out of the air. "We can't play while we're walking around you little pest. You'd realize that if you used that crazy little brain of yours on occasion instead of only using your voice." He joked, gently flicking his finger against her head to accentuate his point, sending her flipping a couple feet through the air.

Though she hadn't been harmed by his teasing Fortuna reacted in her typical over the top fashion. "Traitor! I thought you were on my side!" Comically large crocodile tears, each larger than her head, rained down around her for a few moments as she buried her face in her palms.

"You little drama queen." Chance grabbed her again and soothed her in his hand. "Stop making a scene. We'll be able to play with our new game all throughout the long flight tomorrow you know. No need to get all bent out of shape."

Like the flip of a switch the fake tears stopped instantly and her usual cheer returned. "Really? That'll be awesome! The last plane ride was so boring!" Fortuna hugged his thumb tightly, her previous outburst already forgotten.

By this point they'd reached the food court and picked out a table where they'd be able to easily see his parents and grandfather's arrival. "Fortuna certainly is a little fountain of energy isn't she? She reminds me of a little cartoon character sometimes, and even makes her own special effects." Hiroko commented fondly. Even though she was handful to deal with, Hiroko still adored her grandson's chaotic little quirk. "She's one of a kind."

Chance nodded in agreement. He'd never seen another quirk that was anything like Fortuna. "You can say that again. It's a good thing too. Who knows what would happen if there were two of her. I doubt the world would remain in one piece!" He joked, causing everyone to laugh, even Fortuna herself.

Despite his teasing, and the headaches Fortuna could often cause, he loved his quirk more than anything. He was really proud of all the cool things she could do. He could tell she had much more potential than her wacky personality would suggest, and he was eager to eventually figure out everything she was capable of.

The pleasant conversation continued for a couple minutes before it was interrupted by the sound of a loud crash not too far away. Potentially right outside the shopping mall if Chance were to hazard a guess. "What was that?" He asked, clearly startled.

"I'm not sure dear, hopefully nobody was hurt." Hiroko worried, no doubt thinking about the rest of their family. "We should probably wait here for there to be an announcement. We don't want to get in the way-"

She was cut off by a loud voice coming across speakers scattered around the mall. " **Attention! Attention! We ask that everyone please evacuate the building immediately! We've discovered that a villain has attacked our commercial center. Please remain calm. Heroes have already been alerted and are on their way to our location. We ask that everyone evacuate in an orderly fashio-** "

Any hope of a smooth evacuation vanished however when the announcement itself was cut off by an explosion coming from the Yoshinoya restaurant across the food court. Panic and screaming erupted as people rushed to get as far away from the danger as they could, pushing and shoving each other out of the way. No one wanted to be the closest, and therefore most likely victim of the attack.

Out of the wreckage where the restaurant had stood just moments before, strode a terrifying man with wild eyes and long matted brown hair. He tossed aside a torn trench coat leaving him clad in only a pair of tattered black cargo pants. He wasn't that tall, less than 6 foot, but he was extremely stocky and muscular. The man had huge pulsating boils on his back the size of medicine balls that left him hunched over from their sheer mass. They dripped with noxious green liquid that sizzled and slowly melted the ground where it fell off the villain's back.

Completing his grotesque appearance were a series of tubes connecting his massive pustules to a large buzzing chainsaw he held in both hands. It was coated with the same putrid green goo as his back and the spinning saw sprayed the destructive substance indiscriminately around him. "You know I always thought mall food was fucking shit, but this place was just embarrassing! Terrible customer service too. They pissed me off so bad it's got my acne acting up." The villain cackled madly at his own joke.

Alarmed by the appearance of danger so close by, Chance and his grandmother tried to run away as soon as their initial shock had passed, but with so many others around them trying to do the same it was difficult to move. Before they could even make it out of the food court his grandma had been knocked off balance by someone else desperately trying to escape. Hiroko cried out, her ankle twisting painfully as she tripped and fell down.

Throughout the mayhem the villain had been steadily stalking forward towards the frightened civilians. "What was that they said about Heroes being on the way?" He mocked loudly over the cries of panic. "Well ain't that a shame. I didn't even get to do any window shopping yet. Hah! Oh Well, There's still a bit of time for fun left. Man I love the sound of screaming weaklings as they flee! It really gets me revved up!" He laughed again, revving his chainsaw to go along with his insane ranting.

With the villain getting closer every moment Chance rushed to try and help his Grandma off the ground. "Ouch! It must be sprained or something." Hiroko winced loudly in pain, while she tried frantically to get back to her feet.

"Come on Grandma! We've gotta get out of here!" Chance urged. He tried to help support her weight, but the 9 year old wasn't strong enough to do much, so their progress was painfully slow as they tried to hobble away from the psychopath. Even Fortuna seemed to realize the danger as she flitted back and forth in distress, not sure what to do or how to help.

They heard a crash behind them as the villain knocked aside several tables and the roaring of his chainsaw grew louder and closer than ever. "I think I'll prepare a nice present for when those useless heroes get here. Perhaps they'll enjoy a nice pile of corpses. I know I always do." The madman mocked before his eyes settled on Chance and his grandmother. "Oh, what do we have here? A kid and an old lady. That'll be the perfect start for the welcome gift!"

Chance gulped at the lunatic's declaration and feared the end was near. The villain would surely catch up to them. His grandma could hardly walk and there was no way he'd leave her behind, even if it would of given him a better chance of escaping. He continued to help her struggle forward, hoping desperately that someone, somehow, would stop the monster of a man behind them.

His hopes faded further with each arduous step, the menacing screech of chainsaw blades and the frantic beating of his heart grew to deafening heights until suddenly there was a loud crash and a gust of wind that knocked him and his grandmother off their feet again. He struggled to turn around and looked to see what had happened.

" **Fear not citizens. I am here!** " Out came a booming voice as the dust and debris in the middle of the large food court cleared. The villain was climbing to his feet where he'd crashed into the far wall, and in the middle of it all stood a huge muscular man with tall blonde hair who looked over his shoulder, seemingly directly at Chance, and smiled.

All Might was here.

Chance had of course heard of the man. It was impossible not to see him on some magazine or television around here. He'd even passed a lot of his merchandise inside the very same mall they were in. None of that could of prepared him for what it would be like to experience the man's overwhelming presence in person though, and when he saw that massive grin he felt all the fear, that had been threatening to crush him just moments before, fade away. He felt safe.

" **Your list of crimes ends here Toxic Chainsaw.** " All Might turned his attention back to the maniac. " **You may of evaded capture by other heroes, but you won't be getting away from me! You might as well give up now.** "

"All Might?! You bastard." Toxic Chainsaw seethed, nearly foaming in his crazed rage. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

" **I was visiting a friend close by here when I heard this disturbance you've caused. It was lucky I turned out to be in the right place at the right time.** " All Might explained. " **Your luck on the other hand, has run out.** " He rushed forward to try and detain the noxious criminal but was held off for a moment by a flourish from the saw and it's acidic goo.

The villain used the small amount of space he'd gained to turn around and carve through the wall behind him with his chainsaw. The toxic coating making it able to easily cut through everything in its path. "I don't have time for this shit. I've got to get out of here before more fucking heroes show up." He cursed before rushing out through the opening he'd made.

" **You won't get away again!** " Boomed All Might as he dashed out the same way, in swift pursuit.

Chance remained on the ground for several long seconds, staring at where the two powerful men had just exited. Just moments ago he'd been sure he and his grandmother were going to die and then in an instant All Might had changed everything. Saved his life and so many others. His presence alone had basically been enough to make the villain flee.

The aftermath of the attack passed by in a blur for Chance. He'd only just recovered from his shock enough to help his grandmother to her feet before he found himself swept into his mother's worried arms. "Oh thank god you're alright, we were terrified when we heard there had been an attack right here!"

"I'm alright, mom." He shakily assured her. "Grandma's ankle got hurt though. I was trying to help..."

"You did good son." Alice let out a sob of relief. "Everything will be okay now." Rescue and first responder heroes had finally begun to arrive and help those who needed it most, like those who'd been caught nearby the explosion or hurt in the panic.

The Kojima family left the scene as quickly as they could, eager to put the traumatic event behind them, heading to the hospital to get his grandmother's ankle checked out. It was only a sprain like she had thought, and she would thankfully make a quick recovery. At his mother's insistence Chance was forced to get checked out as well, but he was fine aside from being a little shaken up.

When they finally got home everyone was exhausted from the ordeal, emotionally and physically. "Thankfully neither of you two were seriously hurt." Katsuro said, for what was probably the fifth time in the last several hours, as he sunk into the couch.

They'd seen news snippets on his parents phones that All Might had caught up to Toxic Chainsaw shortly after his attempted retreat, finally capturing the villain and putting an end to the chain of terrorist attacks he'd caused over the past month. The madman had ended up killing 73 civilians - 6 of those during this day's final attack - 2 heroes, and causing countless injuries, making him the most prolific and dangerous villain in recent memory. He was one of the worst that had been seen since All Might, the same man who ended up bringing that lunatic to justice, had taken his spot as the number one hero.

"It was our lucky day." Fortuna added. She'd returned to nearly her normal energetic self not long after the danger had passed.

"What do you mean? We nearly died you know." Chance asked incredulously.

"Yeah but then All Might showed up and saved everyone!" She made a grand gesture, reaching her arms up high above her head. "Remember he said he was just lucky to be in the area close enough to get there so quick?"

"That's right little one. We were all very fortunate he was there to help. It's starting to get late though. We still need to pack tomorrow before our flight home so I think it's time for us all to get some sleep." Katsuro said before getting up to lead Chance to bed.

After the exhausting events of the day Chance was more tired than he could ever remember being, but at the same time his mind didn't want to sleep. It kept revisiting the scene from the mall over and over again.

Unlike most kids Chance hadn't paid too much attention to heroes in the past. He was usually too engrossed with his and Fortuna's games together to notice much else, but now that he'd seen All Might in action everything had changed. It was easy to see why the man had become so overwhelmingly popular here in Japan, and he was well known in America and other countries too. His charismatic smile and powerful presence filled everyone around him with a sense of hope and safety.

Now that Chance began to really consider all of All Might's achievements it was nearly staggering to think about. How many people's lives had he changed today just by being somewhere at the right time? Countless surely. Not just those who were there like him and his grandma, but all those who Toxic Chainsaw may of gone on to hurt in the future if All Might hadn't caught him, and that was just this one villain. One of hundreds All Might had put an end to over the years.

At only nine years of age Chance hadn't thought much about what he wanted to do in the future. In the past he guessed maybe he'd become a professional poker player like his dad or something similar. He and Fortuna certainly enjoyed and were good at that Now that he was giving it more thought he wasn't sure anymore. Sure that would be fun enough, but what would he really be accomplishing besides hopefully making money? What difference would he be able to make in the world by just gambling all his life? Not much, that's for sure.

All Might made a difference though. Every day. Everywhere he went he was a positive force in the people's lives he saved. He made a difference throughout the whole country in fact. He was known as the Symbol of Peace, and with good reason. Ever since he became the number one hero crime rates were at an all time low. Many villains were scared into hiding by his mere existence. Every person All Might saved probably felt many of the same things Chance had today. One moment he'd been sure he was about to die, and the next it was his "lucky day", as Fortuna put it. All because a hero had arrived.

At that moment Chance came to a realization. He wanted his life to mean something. Many people probably desired that at some point in their lives, but for most they would never reach that goal. They lived out their average lives doing average things and were quickly forgotten once they died, sometimes even before. Chance grimaced at the thought of his life turning out like that. He wanted his life to matter, to make a difference, to be remembered.

Like All Might.

He wanted to be the one that brought joy to people's hearts when he arrived on the scene and saved the day, changing their lives forever, and for the better. He never wanted to feel like he had today, helpless and unable to do anything to save his grandmother or himself from impending doom, ever again.

How would he manage to do that though? Chance didn't have the super strength that All Might had. He didn't have scorching flames, or the ability to fly, or any of the other amazing powers heroes wielded.

All he had was Fortuna. She was a silly little ball of energy, and he loved her to be sure, but how could he be a hero with a quirk like his? Then he remembered the bonsai tree from the first day of their vacation and he sat up in bed suddenly.

Fortuna, who'd been fairly silent inside him through all of this, popped out of his chest and looked him curiously. " _What are you getting up for? I thought we had to sleep like Dad said?"_ She questioned silently in his mind, so no one would know they were still awake.

Chance didn't answer immediately, his mind still racing. His quirk wasn't harmless after all. Fortuna had broken his dad's computer without even wanting to. He'd ruined grandma's tree without even trying. How strong was Fortuna? Strong enough to fight villains?

" _Could your cards be even stronger than what I already saw? Could you make something else besides those cards to fight with? I wonder…"_ His thoughts trailed off. He cupped the little lady in his palms looking at her intently. Not for the first time, he wished he understood his quirk better.

" _You're awfully serious tonight Chance."_ Fortuna sat down with crossed legs and returned his serious stare before sticking her tongue out playfully. " _I didn't decide to make that card any more powerful than the rest. The only difference was how much you bet on the game."_ She shrugged. " _I'd love to make stuff for us to play other games together too though. I bet we could have all sorts of fun!"_

Chance's eyes widened in understanding. " _So the more chips I bet on any one game the more powerful your energy gets? Do we need to play a game for you to make things? Couldn't you just make weapons for me or something?"_

" _I'm not just gonna make stuff for no reason. We have to play! Oooh I know what game I want to play next time. Lets try craps! Blackjack has been fun this week but I wanna play other games too!"_ She began bouncing in his hand, her single minded love of gambling taking over again.

Chance didn't let that bother him though. He was beginning to understand Fortuna's vague explanations and simple thought processes a lot better. He realized now that as long as he gave her the opportunity to do what she wanted, which was basically just to play games, then maybe he could learn to finally make her power useful. He could hardly wait to get back home so he could start experimenting with different games for Fortuna to see what else she might be able to do.

He laid back down, his thoughts finally settling down after the long day, and held the quirky little fairy to his chest where she snuggled him for a moment before sinking inside as she did every night. " _You know Fortuna, I think i'm slowly becoming as crazy as you are."_

" _What makes you say that?"_ Her little voice chimed in his thoughts.

Fortuna would only do anything if they were playing games of chance. His quirk was a power that relied upon rolling the dice, and he wanted to use it to fight villains. Heroes risked their lives all the time, and any small mishap could lead to disastrous consequences. Despite all that Chance still felt confident somehow. Fortuna would surprise the whole world. He was sure of it. Together they'd be the good luck that people in danger needed, just as All Might had been for him today.

This was definitely the craziest idea he'd ever had. The gamble of a lifetime. The riskiest thing he could try do with a quirk like his, but he wasn't too worried for some reason. " _Cause I think I might just be able to make this work. We're gonna be heroes!"_ If there was anyone in the world who could pull off something this dicey, it would be him. His quirk was Lady Luck after all.

* * *

 **A/N: A bit of a shorter chapter, but I think this is my favorite one so far actually. Hopefully Chance's motivation to become a hero feels natural. A lot of people just kind of say "Heroes are cool! Of course anyone would want to be one." But I felt like I should spend a bit more time explaining why someone would decided to pick a path that puts their life in danger every day.**

 **More importantly though, what do you all think of Toxic Chainsaw? When Izuku first saw and heard about All Might's crippling injury, the first villain he thought of was this guy, so i figured it must have been someone pretty hardcore if Izuku thought he could of hurt All Might that badly. Hopefully my idea does him justice. He has a cool villain name so it was fun to try to come up with a character that fit.**

 **Next Chapter: With his sights set on becoming a hero, Chance is going to have to figure out how to properly utilize his quirk.**


	4. House Rules

**A/N: This chapter brings us up over 20k words, meaning this is finally a story I might of given a look for myself! I'd like to thank everyone who's reviewed, followed, or favorited this story. It really means a lot to me. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own MHA, promise.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: House Rules**

The return flight home to Nevada wasn't as bad as Chance had expected. Fortuna, being the crazed gambling addict she was, had for some reason thought to hold onto the pachinko game his grandmother had bought for them in the middle of nearly being murdered by Toxic Chainsaw.

"Aren't you glad i did though? This is so much fun!" The crazy pixie piped up from her spot on his shoulder.

It was hard for Chance to argue with that logic. "Yeah. It's nice to have something to pass the time, that's for sure." They played for several hours before he got tired of the game and decided to nap until the journey was over. When he woke up they had nearly arrived. Sleeping for a good portion of the flight made it feel like it went by much quicker than last time.

When they'd gotten home from the airport and his father said he wanted to go take a nap Chance had a strange thought. "Wait a second Dad, it's earlier than when we left Japan. Did our flight take a whole day or something?"

"Actually the opposite." His father yawned. "It's actually earlier the same day we left."

"Whoa that's so weird! We went backwards in time? How does that even work?" Chance said in awe.

"No, it's just because Japan is 17 hours ahead of our timezone." Katsuro explained. "We've done this every year son. Haven't you noticed before? You should pay more attention." He laughed and ruffled his son's hair.

Chance laughed sheepishly as well. "I guess I never really thought about it before."

Not wanting to be left out of the fun Fortuna flew up and started messing around with his hair as well. "Yeah pay attention you dummy!"

"As if you're one to talk you little gremlin!" Chance reached up and tried to swat her away but she zoomed out of his reach, giggling madly.

His dad rubbed his face sleepily. "Ugh. Quiet down you two. It's too early for so much noise. Or is it too late? These flights always mess with me. I'm gonna go rest for a while. Don't bother your mother too much alright?"

"We won't Dad." Chance assured. Now was the perfect time to get back to testing what he could do with his quirk. He had a lot of work to do if he wanted to reach his goal of becoming a hero.

Chance decided to go out into the backyard to begin his experiments, just to be safe. He didn't want to break anything else on accident. It was much larger than his grandmother's garden, but it was mostly an empty square of grass. The family didn't use it all that much and just had a gardener come occasionally to make sure it didn't get too overgrown. It would be the perfect place to test out Fortuna's powers.

"Finally it's play time!" Fortuna flew out into the yard eagerly. She'd already made some cards and was making a show of shuffling them. They flew around her in intricate patterns as she called out to him. "Come on Chance, hurry!"

"Cool your jets missy." He sat down on the grass. "We'll play in just a moment I promise, but first I need to talk to you for a bit. It's about some new games I want to try out. Okay?" Chance would have to be careful to make sure that Fortuna didn't lose interest. He'd have to be sure to explain things in a way her one track mind would be receptive to.

"I love new games!" She crossed her legs mid air mimicking his sitting position at around face level. "What do you want to play?"

"Remember how awesome it was when All Might showed up and saved us? You thought that was cool right?" Chance hoped Fortuna would have a bit of patience for discussion at least this once.

Thankfully she seemed to find All Might sufficiently exciting to talk about for a while. "Yeah he showed up with a Woosh! And hit that gross guy like, Boom! And then stuff was flying all over the place. It was crazy! Kinda like when you get a jackpot on a slot machine and the bells are ringing and the lights are flashing. Super exciting!" Fortuna flew around enthusiastically acting out all her descriptions.

Chance was glad that she had compared All Might's actions to something she loved. Hopefully that meant she'd be more open to his suggestions. "Yeah you enjoy stuff like that don't you Fortuna? I think it makes the games way more fun."

"Yeah! The flashiest slot machines are the best!" She confirmed.

"Right. So my idea is that we take all that energy you've always got and use it to save people like All Might does. What do you think of that Fortuna?" Chance asked.

Fortuna tilted her head at the question. "Wait you're really serious about all this hero stuff huh? I thought you were just having a laugh. I don't know Chance. All Might was cool, sure, but when are we going to get to play if we're always busy running around saving people?"

"We can do both at the same time." Chance explained. "If I become a hero we'll get to play your games all the time. All you have to do is use some of that energy you get when we play to help fight bad guys. Think of it like adding all the bells and whistles to the Jackpot. That stuff isn't really needed to play the game, but it makes it more fun right?"

Fortuna's face lit up with delight. "We'd get to play all the time? That would be awesome! Why didn't you just say that to start with? Let's get started right away!"

"Looks like I'm finally learning to speak your language." Chance laughed. "I'm glad you agree Fortuna. Just keep in mind that we're going to need to try a few things to figure out how to use your power. You're gonna need to have a bit of patience okay?"

"Yeah, I get it now." She smiled. "So what do we do to start? More blackjack?"

"Yes, let's test the cards some more. We didn't really try any more after the first time we used the chips. Hopefully it wasn't just a fluke or something." He agreed and they began to play.

Thankfully Fortuna's playing cards were as strong as he remembered. For the first few hands he tossed them at the ground and they exploded into light like before, but it was hard to tell how strong they were from that. Next he tried throwing one at the fence, which shook and rattled loudly from the impact. That convinced him that the cards could pack a punch. Hitting the fence had been loud though, so he decided it was best not to hit it too much or he might get in trouble again.

He'd been winning quite a bit and had increased his chips by 20 when Fortuna began to tire of him betting only one at a time. "Come on Chance. Let's do some real gambling. Bet higher!" Five of his white chips merged into a single red one marked with the number 5. "Fortune favors the bold ya know."

Of course Chance lost the first bet he made with his new red chip. "Right… Tell me again who fortune favors exactly?" He snipped at Fortuna sarcastically, as she laughed at him. He took his new cards and decided to see how much of an effect changing the size of the bet had. When he threw them at the ground they actually knocked out several chunks of dirt and tore up the grass.

"I guess bigger really is better." Chance whistled, eyes wide in surprise. "Let's try not to destroy the whole backyard on our first day though."

"You were right Chance, this is actually a lot of fun!" Fortuna said cheerfully. "Did you see the lights when those popped? They were way bigger than before."

Chance decided it was time to do some less destructive tests regarding Fortuna's game. He discovered that she didn't even need him to physically use her chips. He could just tell her how much he wanted to bet and it worked all the same. They played for a while without the chips physically present at all and he found that Fortuna had been true to her word about being able to keep track of everything in her head.

That meant that he didn't need to be sitting on the floor to play either. They were able to walk around the yard with Fortuna floating alongside him playing easily enough. He didn't even need his hand's free to hold the cards. As long as he told her what actions he wanted to take, even in his thoughts, she could run the game just as easily as their computer game had. Her boasts from before hadn't been exaggerated surprisingly enough.

"Of course they weren't. I'm Lady Luck after all. You think some stupid machine knows how to gamble better than me?" She exclaimed imperiously. "I am the Queen when it comes to games of chance. Bow before me peasant!" Fortuna posed regally and four Queen cards appeared around her to complete her grandiose display.

"I think you're getting a bit big for your boots there little queen." He plucked her out of the air and held her upside down. "Who's the peasant around here again?"

The silly exchange sent both of them into fits of laughter. "Seriously though, I'm really proud of all the cool stuff you can do Fortuna." Chance said once he caught his breath. "When I become a hero I just know everyone else will love you too."

"As long as I get to play with you Chance, I don't care what anyone else thinks of me." She replied with her most charming smile.

After that they returned to playing blackjack for a while. Chance was pleased with how things had gone so far. They could play the game on the move, which would be necessary with how mobile heroes needed to be. Fortuna's cards seemed like they could become quite powerful, especially if he could win enough chips to bet higher with each hand. So far the only real downside this game seemed to have was that he couldn't save up cards forever. On their own Fortuna seemed to be able to keep the cards around nearly indefinitely, but once they were charged by him betting on a hand they would only last 3 minutes before fizzling out of energy and vanishing.

However, after a long losing streak that brought him down underneath the 100 chips he started with, he remembered the primary weakness of his quirk. Fortuna's power was based around the concept of gambling. That meant you had to bet something, and you were far from guaranteed to get back what you risked. If luck wasn't on his side it was easily possible he would run out of chips, and his quirk would be done for the day. On top of that, he'd lose a portion of all the chips he'd managed to gain up to that point too. He'd have to be very mindful with how he spent his chips at all times otherwise he could easily hinder his own progress, or waste the energy he might need to save someone.

"Let's try a different game Chance." Fortuna suggested. "It's more fun when you mix things up. I wanna play some craps!"

"Yeah, we will need more than one technique if I want to make it as a hero." He agreed. "But how would that one work? What are you gonna do? Put a big craps table down in the middle of a fight?"

"Now you're just being silly." She giggled and a tiny pixie sized craps table appeared next to her. She also changed her outfit. Her new appearance was that of a casino dealer with black dress pants, a white button up shirt with a red tie, and red dealer's vest. She pulled her purple hair back into a loose ponytail and turned to him. "So are you ready to roll some dice?"

"But how am i going to see or place bets on that tiny table - Ohh" Chance interrupted his own question. "You probably don't even need that little table do you Fortuna? You can run the whole game without it? Still, I'm not sure how we are going to use your energy playing like this though."

"It looked like fun when you were throwing all the cards around so it gave me an idea of my own." Two huge red dice, around the size of bowling balls appeared next to her. "It's my turn to have some fun!" Fortuna cheered before she sent the dice rolling around the yard. Where the cards before had burst when they came into contact with another object, the dice continued to bounce around. They rebounded against the fence in the corner of the yard before coming to rest on the ground, sitting there for only a moment before they vanished and a new set appeared next to her. "What do you think Chance? It'll be fun!"

"That's not a bad idea Fortuna." Chance agreed. "Let's give it a try then. I bet 1 on the pass line." He started with the most basic bet. If the roll of the dice comes up a 2, 3, or 12 he'd win, getting two times return on his bet. If the roll was a 7 or 11 he would lose his chip instead.

Fortuna sent the dice out again. Now with his wager active each bounce on the ground made an audible thump from their impact, indicating that the dice had been powered up just like the cards from before. When they came to a stop they were too far away for Chance to see properly, but Fortuna apparently knew the result anyway without going to look. "Hard 8! The new point is 8!" She declared.

In the event that a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 was rolled then that number would become the "point". At this time the dice are rolled again. The goal now is to roll the same number as the point. In this case if Fortuna rolls another 8 Chance would win. However if a 7 comes up before an 8 then he would lose.

Chance realized one large benefit to this game. He could potentially keep rolling for quite a while based off of only 1 bet before the outcome was decided. That could potentially save him a lot of chips over the course of a battle. "I'll bet the odds." He added automatically. The "odds" were a follow up bet that he would roll the 8 before he "crapped out" and rolled a 7. Since this was such a safe bet to make, one of the few you could find in a casino that actually had no house advantage, he did so without giving it any real thought.

That meant he hadn't really considered the fact that he'd just added 5 more chips to his wager. Since the house had no advantage on odds bets it was standard for there to be a limit to how much you could bet on it. In this case it was 5 times his pass bet because the point was on 8.

"Now we're talking!" Fortuna grinned as a red chip spun next to her. The dice went flying again and with the total bet now up to 6. They bounced much higher and father than before, and crashed loudly into the wall of the house before finally coming to a stop."And it's another 8! The pass line wins. That's 30 chips." She cheered.

Chance winced at the noise and rushed over to check the wall, hoping he hadn't knocked a hole in that wasn't the case, but he still panicked when he heard his mother's voice calling out from inside. "Chance what was that noise? What's going on out there?"

Chance returned inside to answer her call. "Uhm... Nothing mom! Me and Fortuna were just playing is all. Nothing to worry about!" He chuckled sheepishly.

"Is that so?" His mother eyed him suspiciously. "Well it was about time you came back in anyways. I ordered pizza for dinner and it'll be here in a few minutes. I'm going to go wake up your dad."

A few minutes later, Chance and his family were enjoying their pizza together when his mother questioned him again. "Sweetheart, what were you and Fortuna doing outside earlier? You almost never go out in the yard. I thought for sure two were going to be glued to the computer the moment we got home."

"Oh, we don't really need the laptop anymore." He chuckled nervously. "I was just testing out what my quirk could really do is all. Fortuna's way more amazing than we thought. We were playing blackjack and craps outside."

"Yeah it was a whole lot of fun!" Fortuna created another set of cards and dice and displayed them proudly above the table. "Look at this Mom! Neat huh?"

His parents each reached out to get a better look at Fortuna's creations. "Oh my! These feel so real." Alice said after she'd shuffled the cards around a bit.

"I agree. Well, Fortuna has always been full of surprises I suppose." Katsuro said, looking thoroughly impressed by his son's quirk. "I'm glad you're learning so much about your quirk son, but I must ask. What brought this on? You never used to bother with these sorts of experiments."

Chance fidgeted nervously at the table for a moment, worried about what his parents would think of his motivations. "Well… you see… When All Might saved me and Grandma it made me think. Heroes change people's lives for the better every single day. The make the world a better place, and people remember them for it." He blurted out anxiously. " I realized that I want to do that too! Fortuna's way stronger than we ever gave her credit for and I… I want to try to be a hero!" He declared.

His mother was the first to recover from her surprise. "What? Son, I love Fortuna just as much as you do, and she can certainly do some impressive things. But now you're talking about hero work? I'm not sure she's exactly reliable for that sort of thing... You know how she can be."

"I know mom… Trust me I've thought of that too. But i'm starting to understand how Fortuna thinks a lot better. I'm sure together we can make it work!" Chance said with conviction.

"Chance, look at me." His father cut in. Katsuro stared at his son for several long moments, as if searching for something. Chance returned his dad's gaze with as much determination as he could muster. "Becoming a hero isn't something you do on a whim. There's a world of difference between messing around playing games with your quirk and fighting villains. Innocent lives will be at stake. Will you be able to handle that responsibility? Are you sure that this is what you want to do with your life?"

"Katsuro he's too young to know what he wants to do with his life." Alice snapped. "Heroism is one of the most dangerous professions someone could choose. It's way too risky!"

"I'm not too young! I know it's crazy, and I know it's dangerous. But I also know that I've never wanted anything more than this. Please Mom! At least let me try. That's all I want." Chance pleaded.

"No!. I'm sorry son, but I can't allow you to pursue something so dangerous!" His mother wouldn't budge.

"Now hold on Alice." His father interjected. "I know you're worried, and I know you're not going to like what I'm about to say, but i think we should let Chance give this hero thing a shot."

"What? Honey you can't be serious!" Alice gawked.

"Now just hear me out." Katsuro asked. "I remember when I first decided to follow my dream. I was a bit older than Chance, sure, but I can see that same passion and drive in my son that I felt back then. I still feel it today even."

He leaned back in his chair and sighed softly. "Gambling is almost completely outlawed in Japan you know. I could only play poker in private live games, and a lot of the people who were involved tended to be the shady sort. I didn't want to have to hide my passion any more, and I didn't want to get in trouble with the law. The only way I could truly pursue my dream was to leave Japan. When i was 17 I told my parents that I wanted to play poker professionally, and that I was going to move to America to do it."

"My dad didn't take it well." Chance's father frowned at the memory. "I didn't expect he would, but… Well let's just say that discussion went worse than I thought it would. He wanted to kick me out of the house then and there if I didn't 'Forget that gambling nonsense and get yourself a proper career!' as he put it. I was determined though, and nothing he said would change my mind. Thankfully my mom talked him down and didn't let him kick me out, but he would hardly speak to me for years."

"When turned 18 I set out across the world, chasing my dream. At the time I had no idea if I was making the right decision. I was risking everything. Everyone thought I was crazy, and that i was throwing my life away." Katsuro continued. "But i took that chance all the same, and i'm glad I did. It was thanks to me taking that risk that I achieved my dream, and met you Alice." he smiled warmly at his wife. "When you gave me a wonderful, healthy son I knew for sure that taking that chance was the best decision I'd ever made. That's how I picked your name, my son."

"Chance, the way you talk about wanting to become a hero reminds me so much of myself when I was younger. There's no way that I could tell you not to follow your dream. I would never put a strain on our relationship like that. Even to this day, after everything worked out for the best, there's still tension between me and my father over my decision to leave. I won't let that happen between us son. I hope you understand Alice." Katsuro finally concluded.

"Oh honey. I'm sorry... I didn't mean to… I wasn't think-... " Alice seemed at a loss for words for a moment. "You're right. Of course I'll support Chance as well. How could I do anything less."

"Do you really mean it Dad?" Chance could hardly believe what he was hearing. Moments ago he'd been been dejected by his mother's disapproval, but now he was quickly filling with hope and excitement again. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" He got up and rushed around the table to hug each of his parents in turn. "I promise you won't regret this!"

Fortuna, not one to be left out of any excitement, had decided it would be helpful to make a party blower and was making a racket in celebration.

"Whoa there you two. Turn it down a notch or three" Chance's father laughed and ruffled his hair. "You should save some of that energy of yours. You're going to need it if you are serious about becoming a hero you know. You're going to need to put in a lot of hard work. I don't want to see you slacking off."

"I won't!" Chance assured fervently. "I'll work extra hard every day and make both of you proud! I'll work hard enough to get into the best hero school in the world, UA, like All Might. Then I'll become a pro hero!" His eyes sparkled with excitement.

"UA? Sweetie that's on the other side of the world!" His mother began to fret again. "Why can't you learn somewhere closer to home?"

"But mom, they don't start hero training till after high school here in America! If I want to become the best hero I can then I have to go to the best school." Chance insisted.

"Haha, you really are a chip off the old block aren't you son?" His father laughed fondly. "You don't do anything halfway do you? That's good. You'll need that sort of confidence if you're going to make it as a hero." Katsuro turned to his wife. "He does have a point though Alice, UA is one of the most highly acclaimed hero schools in the world. They get quite a few foreign students who go there to study. He'd definitely get a good education there. I had to move across the world to follow my dream too. At least he'll be near by his grandparents if he gets in."

"Oh fine, but I swear you two will have me going gray from worry before I turn 40!" Alice gave in. "He'll have to keep up with his school work though on top of practicing with his quirk or i'm going to put my foot down! We'll also need to increase his Japanese studies if he wants to go to school over there."

"Of course dear. He'll also need to focus on his fitness as well." Chance's dad assured her before turning to him. "You won't make much of a hero if all you do is sit around all day gambling with Fortuna after all. You think you can handle all of that son?"

Chance smirked confidently. "I know I can!"

"That's the spirit." His father squeezed his shoulder encouragingly. "I'll also get you some equipment to practice with in the backyard. Maybe a punching bag for you to knock around and some targets for accuracy. I don't want you destroying the house practicing with your quirk after all."

"Thank you both so much. You're the best parents ever!. I promise I won't let you down." Chance found himself wrapped up in a warm hug from both of his parents. He buried his head in his dad's shoulder, overwhelmed by the show of support.

"I know you won't son." Katsuro said warmly.

Chance knew the goal he'd set for himself meant a long and harsh path ahead of him, but despite the difficulty - or perhaps because of it? - he could hardly wait to get started.

* * *

 **A/N: Well there you have it. That's the origin arc complete. It only took me 20,000 words to do it haha. This will be a long story though, were really just getting started here. We also learned about another game in Chance's arsenal, and they've got another 6 years or so till UA. Who know's what they'll come up with in all that time. Any guesses?**

 **Next Chapter: We'll be heading back to Japan to see if Chance can make it into UA.**


	5. Deal Me In

**A/N: A whole week of chapters in the books! Thanks so much to everyone who's stuck with me thus far. I hope you enjoy this one too.**

 **Also from this point on underlined text indicates someone speaking any language besides the native one of the country the scene takes part. For example here. English in Japan.**

 **Disclaimer: I own exactly 1 imaginary roople. Sadly not My Hero Acadamia though.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Deal Me In**

"And make sure you remember which is the connecting train you're going to take alright Chance? Maybe I should write it down for you. Oh no, what if you get lost or miss your train and don't make it to the school on time. I should of checked for an earlier one just in case!" Alice fretted.

Katsuro chuckled at his wife as she paced back and forth across his parent's living room. "Alice relax! Everything is going to be fine. You're more nervous than Chance is, and he's the one actually taking the exam!"

"Yeah Mom. No need to get all worked up. I got this in the bag!" Chance, now 15 years of age, assured his mother. "We're gonna knock this thing out of the park, just you wait and see. Isn't that right Fortuna?" He looked over to his little companion.

Fortuna herself was dressed as a Joker again today. The outfit had become one of her favorites over the years. At the moment she was currently bored waiting around to leave, unconcerned with the proceedings around her. She'd created a few pins that she was juggling to entertain herself. "Huh? Yeah sure whatever you say Chance!"

"See? Total confidence!"

Alice shook her head. "Oh you two. I don't know how you're so relaxed anyway. You've been working for this for nearly six years now. Aren't you nervous?"

"He's got nerves of steel just like his old man! This reminds me of the first time I made it to the final table at the world series of poker. I'd gone in with the smallest stack-" Katsuro began to boast before he was cut off by his son.

"You've told this story at least a dozen times Dad!" Chance teased. "But you're right Mom, I did spend six years preparing for this, and that's exactly why I'm not worried. When you go all in with aces you can't worry about what'll happen afterwards. As long as you get your money in with the best hand you've done all you can. All that's left is to see how the rest of the cards turn out."

"You boys and your poker analogies are too much sometimes. But I'm sure Chance will do fine Alice. He's like his father after all. When they set their mind to something you can bet that they'll do well." Hiroko went over to hug her grandson.

"Thanks for the support Grandma. You've always had my back." The teen smiled down at her after returning the fierce hug.

"Of course! You know I remember when you were just a little boy with a little chattering ball of light buzzing around you all the time, and look at you now!"

"I know exactly what you mean Mom." Alice jumped in. "But he'll always be my little boy though, even if he is taller than me. I swear he's growing like a weed. Nearly as tall as his father already!" She reached up to push some stray purple hair out of his face, smiling fondly.

"Aww Mom! Come on!" Chance pulled back, embarrassed. "I'm not a kid anymore. A hero can't have his mother fussing over him all the time!"

"As your mother I'll always worry over you, hero or not, son. Fortuna you be sure to keep him safe out there today you hear me?" She said.

Fortuna turned to look at the group in surprise. "Keep him safe from what? Is it game time yet? I can't wait to play!" Thanks to the distraction her excitement caused all three of the pins she'd been juggling to come crashing down on her own head, sending her sprawling to the ground. "Oof."

Alice buried her face in her hands, less than reassured by the display. "Remind me again why I ever agreed to this idea."

Hideyoshi huffed grumpily at the scene while Chance and his father laughed at Fortuna's mishap. "Your mother is right Chance! You ought to be taking this more seriously. Your parents did a lot to help you prepare for this. You better not let their efforts go to waste."

"Right! Fortuna it's time to put our game faces on." Chance declared.

"Like this? Grrrr" She scrunched her face up into an exaggerated imitation of Hideyoshi's trademark scowl, earning another laugh from most of the room.

"But in all seriousness. Grandpa is right. You've all done so much for me over the years. Your support means the world to me. I won't let you down!" Chance smirked and grabbed his backpack. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's go Fortuna!"

* * *

During the train ride to UA, Chance had little to do but look out the window, reminiscing over all the preparation he'd put in to get to this point. He'd spent nearly every scrap of his spare time over the past six years working towards this week. He and his parents had scheduled their trip to visit his grandparents early this year so that it would coincide with the entrance exams.

The years of preparation had came and went in what felt like a flash for Chance. He was constantly busy , between his school work, working on his exercise and fitness, and of course most importantly, practicing with his quirk. He'd barely had any time to socialize. Not that he was unpopular or anything. He just had no time to hang out outside of class. In fact he usually got along well enough with his classmates. Except the ones who found Fortuna annoying that is. She tended to have a bit of a polarizing personality. Some people found her hilarious and enjoyed seeing what sort of goofy things she'd come up with each day, but for others she only seemed to get on their nerves.

Chance didn't really care what they thought, though, nor did he care about the lack of any meaningful friendships over the years. After all, he had Fortuna as a constant companion to keep him from getting lonely. In a way he and Fortuna had always stood apart from the rest of the crowd. Always focused on their own games and their own goals. In some ways, Chance's single minded focus on his goals was a lot like Fortuna herself. He and the little pixie could be more similar at times than he cared to admit.

It had often been hard for Chance to relate to his classmates. They'd all seemed to be happy to just coast along with minimal effort. To him they all seemed to blend together into the background. None of them strove to stand out or do something to break away from the average lives they'd been born into.

Chance wouldn't accept that for his life though. He wouldn't let himself become just another face in the crowd. He and Fortuna would not be overlooked and forgotten. They would rise above and make a name for themselves. That's what kept him motivated through the years. It's what kept him going through every annoying homework assignment he didn't want to do, and through every exhausting workout he wasn't sure he could complete.

"Chance when are we going to get there?" His little partner complained. "Trains are so boring! I want to get this silly test started so we can play already! Oooh I can hardly decide what I want to play first. Roulette? Wait… Poker? Yeah that sounds fun today!"

Fortuna's chattering reminded him of the most important part of his training he'd done. That was of course, learning to work together with Fortuna herself. Throwing around cards and dice was a nice trick, sure, but he wanted to make it to the top, not just barely scrape by. To get into a school as competitive and prestigious as UA, he worried that wouldn't cut it.

After they agreed upon the games Blackjack and Craps it had taken a long time for them to come up with another. Fortuna was always eager to play other games, sure, but finding a way to use those games in different and useful ways was tough. The trouble with a sentient quirk became quickly apparent. Fortuna was powerful, but he couldn't simply force her to do anything she didn't want to do. He couldn't just practice and improve his quirk like other people might be able to. Him and Fortuna had to work together. " _That hadn't always been easy, that's for sure."_ Chance thought to himself as he looked back on some of their training together.

* * *

The first breakthrough had been when Fortuna insisted on playing Roulette one day. Chance had been skeptical at first. "What are we gonna do? Throw the little ball around too? That seems redundant."

"Come on Chance, have a little fun! Place your bets and let's spin the wheel!" Fortuna pressed on, despite his reluctance.

"Alright fine. I bet 5 on red. Let's see how this plays out."

"Yay!" Fortuna cheered, and spun her little miniature Roulette wheel. He could hear the tiny ball spinning along inside it for about 20 seconds before it finally came to a halt. "12 Red!" She announced to him.

"Great I win. Now what?" Chance asked unenthusiastically.

"We spin again! What else would we do silly?"

"We're supposed to be trying to figure out how to make the games be useful! Not just playing for no reason Fortuna." He reminded her.

"Hmph! Why do you have to spoil my fun Mr Grump?" She huffed.

"You're being an annoying little fairy today, aren't you? Is there any particular reason? Or are you just trying to get on my nerves?" Chance groaned before snatching her out of the air and glowering in irritation.

"Annoying fairy huh? You ain't seen nothin' yet!" Fortuna stuck her tongue out at him but instead of trying to squirm away like he expected she did something completely new. Something he could of never expected.

The roulette ball from before that had been charged from his bet hopped out of the wheel and quickly took a new form. It grew to a tennis ball sized sphere of energy much like Fortuna used to look when she first manifested. The only differences was that it was red like the color it had landed on from the spin, and that Fortuna had given it wings. Fairy wings.

The new little fairy zoomed over and began circling Chance's head, darting to and fro, all the while it's squeaky voice kept saying "Hey! Listen! Hey! Listen! Hey! Listen!" imitating some old video game Chance had played a few times.

"Now that's an annoying fairy!" Fortuna laughed right alongside the repeated chirping of her creation.

"Woah woah woah. Now wait just a minute. Quiet down you!" Chance shushed, partially from annoyance, but mostly because of his shock at the turn of events. "Do you even realize what you just did Fortuna? That thing's moving around on its own. Are you controlling it?"

"Yup!"

"Could you make more?"

"Sure! Lots even. But why? What do you want to do with them?" Fortuna tilted her head curiously.

With a gleam in his eye Chance replied. "That's what we've got to figure out next."

The revelation had been even greater than when she first made her deck of cards. Fortuna could create seperate little… things. Whatever they were. Chance could only guess they were offshoots of herself. She was never one to get into technical explanations about how or why she could do the things she did.

Chance set out then to test what these new little fairies could do, and Fortuna was happy to oblige, since it meant she could keep playing Roulette with him. Every spin at least one would be made from the ball, and when it landed on higher numbers she'd make more. It would split into 2 if the spin landed on the second 12 number section on the table, and 3 from the third. "Bigger is better! Duh!" Was her only explanation.

Now that they were actively playing Fortuna was a lot more cooperative. Her fairies would do what he wanted them to do without him even voicing what he wanted, which didn't surprise him too much. From the very first day they were together she'd always seemed to know what he was thinking. They lasted for 3 minutes, much like the cards did. Chance could only assume that was as long as Fortuna could sustain energy outside of her main form. They seemed incapable of moving too far away from himself, just like Fortuna herself, so he couldn't just send them out far away on their own.

He already had long distance attacks though in the form of his cards and dice. What he really needed was something that could either protect him or help him up close. "Hey Fortuna, let's play a some craps. 5 on the pass line. Toss the dice at me."

"You want to try and have the fairies block them?"

"Exactly." Chance confirmed.

He'd been slightly nervous due to the mischievous smirk on Fortuna's face as she lined up to roll her dice, but it turned out he had nothing to worry about. As he had hoped, one of the little fairies darted in front of the incoming projectiles before they could reach him. The fairy popped from the impact, no longer able to hold its form, but it had done its job and the dice fell to the ground harmlessly after being repelled.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Chance cheered. "Now we're making some progress. I do wonder though… Could I use the energy from them a bit more directly?"

In response to this thought the last few fairies he had left came over and nuzzled up against his palm for a moment. "What would happen if they tried to sink inside me like you usually do Fortuna?" He wondered.

"Let's see!" She zipped over to his shoulder to watch for herself as one of the little things tried to squish itself against his hand. The fairy seemed unable to go inside like Fortuna could, but something surprising happened instead. It's form dissipated as the energy that made up the little fairy coated his arm.

Chance stared oddly at his arm wondering what to do with this new discovery. Before he could think of anything though, that particular fairy's time limit had run out and the energy around his arm dispersed. "Hmmm okay. Let's spin again to get another. I bet 5 on black. There's one last thing I need to test."

"Sure!" Fortuna cheered and started the spin. The fact that each spin took around 20 seconds on top of the fairies time limit meant he'd never be able to have that many at once he realized. "19 Red!"

As soon as the two new red fairies spawned he had one merge with each of his arms. He went over to his punching bag that he normally used to test the strength of his cards or dice at different bet sizes and threw a punch with his energy coated fist that knocked the bag around far more than he could normally manage. The energy around his arm dissipated immediately after the single punch, but he grinned all the same. "We can work with this!"

* * *

That had been the day where he'd realized Fortuna's true potential. It took a while after that for them to perfect teamwork with the fairies, but their most recent and largest step forward in his quirk abilities had come later on. The fairies had planted an idea in his head. More of a question really. If Fortuna could make creatures like those, what else could she make?

When she had first arrived she had been just a little ball and it took awhile for her to learn to change her look. In much the same way it also took her some time to learn how to improve the creations she could make. It wasn't till he was 14 years old that Fortuna seemingly made her next leap forward.

He'd worn himself out with his workout earlier in the day and was inside watching a movie with Fortuna to take a break. They decided to watch Alice in Wonderland, an old Disney cartoon, mostly because it was Fortuna's favorite, and one of the few that she had the patience to sit through.

"Off with their heads! Off with their heads!" Fortuna giggled madly. "I love this part! The red queen and her card soldiers are really funny looking!"

Chance smiled down at his quirk, her endless enthusiasm always kept his spirits up. "Yeah they're definitely amusing. Wait a minute… Card Soldiers… That gives me an idea!"

Chance's favorite game was Poker, perhaps unsurprising considering his father's profession, but he hadn't yet been able to find a way to make it work with his quirk for Fortuna's games. They already had the throwing cards from Blackjack and he couldn't think of anything else to do with poker. Until now that is. "Fortuna what if you made your own card soldiers to go along with us playing poker?"

His quirk's eyes widened in excitement. "Ooh! That's a doozy of an idea! You mean like video poker?"

"Yeah, exactly. You want to give it a shot?"

"Of course! Let's do it right now. No time to waste!" Fortuna flew forward and turned around to face him, the movie quickly forgotten in her excitement to play a new game. "What sort of payout table should we use though?"

"I'm not sure yet… Let's just start with something basic like Jacks or Better to see how it works out. I'll bet 10 chips on the first hand." Chance was eager to get started as well. If this worked out as he hoped it might end up being their best game yet.

The hand played out quickly and he ended up with 5, 5, 6, 8 and 10. Not enough to win his bet back, because as the name of the game would suggest he would need a pair of Jacks or better for that, but at least he got a pair. The cards shimmered in the air in front of him coated with Fortuna's energy for a moment before the pair of 5's began to change. They grew all the way to the size of a average height man and took a humanoid shape. Their finished appearance was that of an very standard looking medieval crusader with the flat sort of helmet that covered the whole face with only 2 small slits to see through. The marking of their suit and number was displayed on the front of their tabard.

"Woah, that's crazy Fortuna! This is so much more than I expected. Your fairies are pretty basic after all." Chance walked up to get a better look and see how sturdy they were. When he approached the 5 of clubs actually put his fist up, apparently hoping for a fist bump. Chance laughed and obliged the card soldier.

"Well I've had a lot of practice since then. I'm way better at this than I was before. I think we should name them all. That guy can be Steve!" She chirped, gesturing towards the fist bumping card knight proudly.

"We're not naming every single one of these dudes Fortuna. Don't be ridiculous. I imagine they'll only last 3 minutes like all your other stuff anyways." He said distractedly as he circled the soldier, knocking on his armor in places to get a feel for how sturdy it was.

"That's besides the point! How could you be so cruel to Steve! He has a family you know!" Fortuna whined playfully. "Tell him Steve."

"I have a wife and daughter! She's just a little 2 of hearts, the cutes-" The 5 of clubs began before Chance cut him off.

"Oh hush you, can we be serious for a moment here Fortuna. I want to actually see what they can do. Should we play another hand to get more to work with?"

Fortuna just shook her head and chirped. "Sorry! No can do! I don't think I can make enough this big to play multiple hands at once. Not right now at least. We'll just have to wait till these two are gone first."

Chance just shrugged. "Oh well. Let's just work with what we have for now then."

He had the two fight each other for a while. They didn't pop after just one impact like the cards or the fairies but after the 5 of clubs threw the other onto the ground it did end up dispersing. "So they can throw more than one punch and take a bit of damage, but if they take too big a hit they do end up popping like the others. I suppose that makes sense. These are way tougher than any of your other creations so far though Fortuna good job."

"I like them too! This is a lot of fun!" She fluttered around her card soldier happily for a few moments before his time limit was up and he popped out of existence. "Steve no! Why do the good always die young?!" She lamented loudly, zooming over to Chance's shoulder sobbing phony tears.

"Yes… a real tragedy…" Chance deadpanned. "But if we could return to the realm of sanity for a moment there's still a ton we've got to figure out about this new game. For one, why didn't they have any weapons? What good is a Knight without anything to fight with."

"Oh right!" Fortuna stopped messing around to look up at him thoughtfully. "I wasn't really sure what i should give them though."

"Why not just swords?"

"The different suits gotta have different ones though!"

"If you insist…" Chance took a moment to think. "Alright Diamonds look kinda like spearheads… They could have those. Clubs… A blunt weapon. Maybe a mace? Hearts could be a sword and shield or something…" He voiced his ideas out loud as they came to mind.

"Those all sound cool! You're a lot better at this part than me. But what about the Spades? Those are my favorite."

"Spades… Looks kinda like an arrow head I guess? Could you give them crossbows?" Chance finally decided.

"That's perfect!" Fortuna cheered. "Oh this is going to be our best game yet. I can already feel it! We gotta come up with what the face cards should be too now. They're way more special than the regular numbers." She was getting into one of her more excitable moods again, flying around erratically, seemingly unable to sit still.

"Woah there little one, hold your horses! That does sound really cool, but we don't have to figure them all out at once. Take things one step at a time." Chance reached out and grabbed her out of the air to calm her down a bit. "Though that does make me think… Can we have the kicker card of the poker hand count for the game too? We'd see the special face cards a lot more that way."

Fortuna's face lit up at the idea. The kicker card was the high card of a hand that had a pair better. It wasn't normally used in video poker because it was usually only important for breaking ties in games with multiple players, but she did like the idea all the same. "That would be fun! Sounds good to me." She gave him a thumbs up.

With a huge grin on his face Chance said. "Awesome! Let's get to work then."

* * *

Chance was finally shaken out of his reminiscing when he heard the recording from the train's speakers announce that they'd arrived at his stop. .

"Finally! Man that train ride took forever. I thought it would never end." Fortuna piped up beside him as he was walking from the train station to the school. "I was so bored! And you were no help either, staring at the window the whole time." She floated in front of him and crossed her arms, giving him a grumpy look. "We should of at least played something while we were waiting."

"We've gone over this before Fortuna. We can't just play on a crowded train. It's against the rules for me to use my quirk in public. That's why I have to become a hero, so we can use all the cool games we came up with. Remember?" Chance explained.

"Yeah I guess…" Fortuna sighed. "We don't have to use the energy from the chips though do we?"

"Not technically, no. But at the same time I don't want to potentially waste them right before a test." Chance said, patiently. "Over the years I've finally managed to build my bankroll up to 1000, I don't want to waste any of it right now when it matters the most."

"You're no fun!"

"Well unless you wanted to play something dumb, like go fish or something, you're out of luck. I'm not betting any chips right before the test."

"Coward!" Fortuna said playfully before fluttering down to her usual perch on his shoulder. "Oh well, we're here now." She pointed ahead of them.

"Woah…"

Chance must of been really distracted while he was talking to Fortuna. That was the only explanation because how else could he fail to see the huge gates that he was nearly right on top of at this point. It wasn't just the gate that was massive though, that was simply the beginning. Somehow everything inside of UA's grounds was massive and extravagant in nature. Towering buildings with shiny glass windows all over. It was hard not to be impressed.

"Holy hell… I knew this place was loaded but seeing it in person really is something else." He smirked after his initial astonishment wore off. "I knew that this school would be worth all the effort. Now I just have to make sure we get in. You ready for this Fortuna?"

"What do I look like? An amateur? Of course I'm ready!" She said haughtily.

"You look like a clown actually." Chance pointed out neutrally. "And you act like one too."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? I'm a joker not a clow-" Fortuna's tirade was cut off as they were both distracted by the sound of panicked shouting a short distance up the path in front of them.

The commotion was coming from a boy with green hair who was currently floating in the air flailing his arms around wildly. They also noticed a girl with shoulder length brown hair shaped a bit like an upside down bowl next to the panicking boy. She seemed to set him on his feet and they engaged in a short conversation as Chance and Fortuna walked up the path in their direction. The girl had just turned away begun heading up towards the main building again when Fortuna rushed forward shouting. "Hey you! Wait up!"

"Fortuna what are you doing! Come back here!" Chance called out to her, but the little pixie paid him no mind. "Ugh. She's like a dog chasing a squirrel. Wait no. I better not say that or it might give her ideas." He groaned and rushed to catch up to his wayward quirk.

* * *

Ochako Uraraka had barely started heading up to sign in for the written exam when she heard a high pitched voice frantically shouting behind her. "Hey! Brown hair girl wait up! Wait for me!"

Confused and slightly alarmed she turned around only to be met by an even more confusing sight. What looked like a tiny person, around ten centimeters tall, was literally flying through the air, seemingly in a hurry to catch up to her. "Uhm… Sorry… Did you need something?" _Is that a person with a miniaturization quirk or something?_ She wondered to herself.

Whatever the hyperactive little thing was it ignored her question, and upon reaching her began chattering even more rapidly. "Whew, I finally caught you! Did you make that goofy guy fly back there? If you did that's so cool! See I can fly too, but I can't make other people fly like that. I bet it's real cool though! You probably couldn't make me fly though, since I'm already flying. Or could you? Would I fall down instead or something? I wonder how that would work."

Now that the miniature girl had gotten closer Ochako could see that she was dressed in a jester's costume, which did nothing to lessen her confusion. Between that and the girl's mostly nonsensical rambling she didn't know what to do but stare blankly at the bizarre little joker.

Thankfully she was saved from the exuberant tirade when another teen rushed up to them. "Fortuna! What's the matter with you, rushing off ahead like that? You know you're not supposed to harass strangers like that." The boy sighed in exasperation. "Uhm sorry about this Miss. She just gets excitable sometimes, even when she knows better. She didn't mean to cause any trouble, she just gets ahead of herself is all."

Ochako relaxed and a smile came to her face as she looked up at the boy who had called off the overly eager little jester. He was fairly tall, probably around 5'10, with a wiry looking build. His medium length light purple hair was kept loosely slicked back and away from his face. "Oh it's no big deal really. I admit I'm a bit confused though. I assume you two know each other?"

The boy smiled at her in relief once she made it clear she wasn't upset. "Oh right I should probably introduce myself. I'm Chance Kojima and this wacky little rascal over here is Fortuna. She's actually my quirk."

Ochako's eyes went wide with surprise. "Wait she's your quirk? But she can talk! That's really weird. But it's actually kinda cool too. Certainly not something you see every day is it? Oh right, where are my manners. I'm Ochako Uraraka. It's nice to meet you both!" She smiled before remembering what time it was. "Oh shoot! We're running out of time until the written exam gets started. We better head up there."

"Good call." Chance agreed and they began heading in the direction of the main building. "And, yeah my quirk is definitely one of the weirder ones. Fortuna is great and all but, as you can see, having a quirk with a mind of its own can be a bit of a handful at times."

Fortuna herself hopped back into the conversation. "Sorry Chance. When I saw Ochako talking with that other boy it looked like she made him float around. I got real curious and couldn't help myself!" She zipped in front of Ochako to give a little spin and a theatrical bow. "I offer my sincerest apologies!"

"Aw… She's kind of adorable actually. Of course I forgive you!" Ochako giggled at the little pixie's over the top behavior.

Chance chuckled as well. "Yeah she certainly knows how to turn on the charm when she wants to. Of course the rest of the time the little imp is finding some way or another to cause trouble."

"I'm just having fun!" The little joker argued.

"As for your question about making him float, yes that was me. My quirk lets me take control of the gravity for people or objects I touch." Ochako cut in.

"I knew it!" Fortuna cheered. "You've got a really cool quirk Ochako!"

"Haha, Thanks! I think you're a pretty cool quirk too Fortuna." She said with a blush.

The group had finally reached the sign in table where they received their seat assignments for the test. "Looks like this is where we part ways." Chance said once they discovered they were placed on opposite sides of the auditorium. "It was nice meeting you. Thanks for being so patient with Fortuna. I know she can be a bit much to handle."

Ochako waved him off with a smile. "Oh she wasn't any real trouble. She's quite amusing actually. She helped take the edge off my nerves for the exam so really, I ought to be thanking you. Good luck on the test you two!."

As Ochako was sitting down and getting ready for the test she thought to herself. _Wow I knew there would be kids with crazy quirks trying to get into UA but i would've never imagined one like that. They were nice though. I hope they do well._

* * *

Chance found his way towards the back of the room where he took his seat quietly.

Fortuna on the other hand had to be constantly reminded of the concept of 'inside voices'. "Chance why do we have to wait around in here? When are we going to get to go play like you said?" She whined loudly, gaining the attention of a blonde girl with two tall horns and large eyes who was seated next to them.

"Fortuna before we go out and do the practical exam you're gonna have to wait another hour for everyone to finish this written test first." Chance explained. "You're gonna have to be quiet, so just go ahead and rest inside for a bit."

"What?! An hour? Ugh this sucks!" Fortuna complained before complying. Of course she had to make a spectacle of herself doing that as well, crying out "Oh cruel world! What did I ever do to deserve this?!" melodramatically before she dived back into Chance's chest.

Chance turned to his neighbor and chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry about my quirk. She won't be any trouble during the test."

The girl stopped paging through the little book she had in front of her to quietly reply. "Oh, uhm. Thank you. That's your quirk? Is it always like that?"

"Like what?"

"So… Energetic."

"Oh, yeah. She's a rambunctious little scamp. But she'll behave herself I promise." Chance confirmed.

"Sorry what was that one term? Rambun…" The girl looked a bit confused.

Chance took a look at the book she'd been reading to see it was an Japanese to English dictionary. He put that information together with her slow and careful style of speech as well as her accent and came to a quick conclusion. "Wait are you foreign too?" He asked her in English.

Her eyes lit up in surprise. "Oh! Yes. I'm from Chicago. I thought you were Japanese though. You speak it so well!"

"Thanks! I'm from Las Vegas actually. But my Dad was born here in Japan. We practiced a whole lot at home."

"I'm a bit jealous actually. I've spent a lot of time learning Japanese to try and get into UA. I can understand and speak okay, but there's still a few words and phrases I come across that I don't know. That's why I've got this dictionary here to help me on the test in case I need it." The horned girl explained. "But I'm curious, you said that little fairy girl from earlier was your quirk? It can talk?"

Chance realized he'd be having this sort of conversation a lot if he got into UA. He'd had it a lot in the past too actually. It was kind of unavoidable when you have a quirk that's as out of the ordinary as his. Fortuna certainly didn't help with the way she'd always draw attention to herself. "Yeah. Her name's Fortuna, and yes she can talk. Actually, it's hard to get her to stop talking most of the time. Right now she's singing inside. Thankfully not for the whole auditorium to hear her though."

Noticing the conversation was about her, Fortuna decided it would be helpful to give a demonstration. She made her song audible for a few moments so the girl could hear as well. "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves!"

"And that's enough of that." Chance shushed her.

The blonde girl seemed to find this amusing at least. "Wow, can't imagine it's easy to concentrate while she's pestering you like that." She giggled.

"Definitely. I've had to get used to it though." Chance let out a long suffering sigh. "She's not usually quite this hyper. I guess she's just really anxious to get to the practical bit of the exam. Can't say I really blame her. I am too after all. It looks like the test is about to get started though. Good luck!"

"Same to you." The girl returned with a little grin.

The test itself went by fairly quickly and Chance didn't have too much trouble with it. He was always a good test taker, it was mostly the homework that he hated most about school. While he certainly didn't finish first by any means he did complete it with about 20 minutes to spare. Once he'd returned to his seat after turning in his test he and Fortuna occupied themselves for the remainder of the test by scanning around the auditorium seeing who had the weirdest looking quirks. They never could decide who was the winner however. It was a tie between a boy that looked like a praying mantis and another who had what looked like six webbed arms.

His fellow American took a bit longer to finish than he did. She'd probably had to look up things in her dictionary, but when she came back from turning in her test she gave him a little smile and a thumbs up. " _She must of done well then too."_ Chance returned the gesture with a smile of his own.

" **Alright listeners! I hope you all finished because times up!** " Present Mic, the proctor for the exam, called out from the front of the auditorium. " **Please bring your tests up to the front if you haven't already and then return to your seats!** " After waiting a minute or two for everyone to get situated again he continued. " **Now that that's out of the way… Everybody say hey!"**

Nobody responded to his enthusiastic greeting, but that didn't seem to bother him. " **You could cut the tension with a knife!** " He called out with his quirk enhanced voice. " **And I don't blame you listeners, cause it's time to lay out the way the practical portion of the exam is going to go down!** "

Chance couldn't hold back his grin. _Finally time for the fun to begin._

* * *

 **A/N: Whew! That one ended up being a bit longer than the last couple. There was a lot to cover though before the UA stuff started in earnest. Chance's quirk is complicated. Which I like because it gives a lot more ways to use it, but also I feel like that means I need to give a lot more info and set up about it. Of course we also got to have our first talk with fan favorite Ochako! Hopefully you enjoyed that little scene as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also was the first time I really did someone's PoV besides Chance, which gave me the opportunity to give a bit more info on what he looks like.**

 **And of course I couldn't help myself but have him meet the other American exchange student Pony. She's actually pretty cool in the manga. She'll actually get more screen time here.**

 **Next Chapter: It's time for the practical exam! Will Chance's years of preparation pay off? Will Steve ever be reunited with his wife and daughter? Find out next time!**


End file.
